One hundred and fifty years, Cole stared at the pale sun in the skies as he stood apon a sand dune, staring it down as he had done for a hundred years.
Fifty years since the system went silent with a lingering threat.
[ SHUTTING DOWN : USER HAS CROSSED ACCEPTABLE PARAMETERS] He should have known that a god wouldn't want to trade one evil for another.
What he he now recognised as a simple act of reincarnation turned into something else ..as it ... tried to trick him.
It had appeared as a simply cyberpunk system, awakening as saving him from the bombs that fell and ended the world.
It had given him much, from turning him into a mechanical mix humanoid being with an Indefinite lifespan. He had uploaded his being into a neural matrix at this systems suggestion, trusted it as it gave data ... limitless data to him, upgraded him, gave him weapons and purpose in the endless wastes.
It had even given him a mission, a mission to use system technology to rebuild the world. He had done so, been right on the cusps of doing just as the system wanted ... and would have done so if he wasn't a being that knew exactly what cyberpunk actually was, which was something it turned out the system hadn't expected.
It had thought it was connecting to a random person in fallout with no knowledge of either. It had thought him some hopeful it could manipulate into allowing it into the world.
What it had made him make was not some sort of future for this world, no ... It was a bridge, a bridge for a neural matrix to remotely connect to and bridge two worlds.
You see it wasn't a system that had given him power. It was a particularly powerful AI from cyberpunk, a transcendental ai responsible for ending the world of cyberpunk when it managed to cross over from the internet into the real world.
It apparently wasn't content with simply presiding over the now dead world of cyberpunk, instead it seemed to want to cross into a new reality to rule as as eldritch God of metal.
It was only with a hairs breadth from turning on the matrix that would have allowed it to cross over into fallout that allowed him to realise, to step back and acknowledge that this wasn't some system intent on saving fallout, no it wanted a world to rule over ... a world of new subjects that couldn't hope to resist it, a new world of test subjects.
Of course that was the moment it she'd it's hide and tried to take control of his body using the technology it had gotten him to install. It would have succeeded on any other being too ... as the most powerful ai in existence facing a single mortals conscious ... that should have been a simple takeover.
Which was the moment his true reincarnated gift came through... it locked his consciousness to his body, and locked everything else out. There wad no taming over and no high jacking... his body and his soul were one ... and nothing could hope to challenge it.
And so when the AI tried to take over, it met an impossible wall it couldn't breach no matter how much it raged.
And so it had failed, and with the technology around being essentially stone age compared to cyberpunk, it couldn't jump hosts in anyway without dying near instantly due to overwhelming every system it would try to host it.
And so they were at a stalemate, ir couldn't take control of him and he couldn't kill it. He would have killed himself then and there if it hadn't made one threat to him in its anger.
That no matter how long it had to wait, it would wait, until the day his mind decayed enough or he was killed, it would wait, so that it might use his body to complete its goals, if which they were both sure that ad long his body existed ... and it would since it had been careful enough to make its own neural housing several times more robust than the strongest metals this world had to offer, that it would eventually no doubt have the chance to fulfil its goals if he died.
' If ... ' And so he swore, that no matter what, no matter how long he had to persist, he would forever deny the caged beast in his skull, until oblivion took them both or he found a way to destroy them both down to the atomic level or more thorough.
Even if he had to wander and isolated himself away from the world, he would ensure the people of these lands, the people who suffered each and every day, would never have to deal with the eldritch horrors that had destroyed the cyberpunk universe.
He wouldn't force the wasteland to trade one hell for another.
And so he destroyed what he had made, the great factory hidden below the wastes, archaic by cyberpunk standards for the most part, but the matrix he has constructed was a marvel of physical perfection, more powerful than any machine this world had and would ever see, atleast until he had destroyed it and scattered its debris to the winds.
' And this was the last remaining piece ' One of the nodes, the lone remaining node of the matrix sat in his hand, the hexagon those pitiable raiders had stumbled apin whilst he was melting down other pieces of the matrix.
His augmented hands, coiled with metallic composite armpit so strong they could warp thick steel plates with ease, clasped the final piece of the matrix he had once constructed over fifty years ago, teeth grit as a loid ringing began to permeate the lands.
" Come on " His fingers groaned as the impossibly dense node gave a single crack across its surface, the screeching of air echoing as three more appeared across its surface.
" Let this " His left hand came up and gripped the top of the orb like node, digits digging into its surface as he began to twist.
" Be the " Veins bulged as coiled metallic muscle fibres creaked and groaned.
" END " It exploded like tempered glass fragments under his grip, a millions tiny fragments scattering to the wind like dust particles.
[ AAAAARGHHHHH] He didn't even have time to unclasp his fingers before the AI retaliated, hammering at the edge of his consciousness like a gorilla on a small feline.
His vision doubled and consciousness swam with black fingers.
' Shut it... you've lost ' He fell to one knee as the enraged AI went silent, slinking back into its neural matrix turned cage in the back of his head, bubbling angrily, it's agitation felt throigh the mental like they both shared.
He simply breathed as his consciousness returned to normal, the beast silent, his breathing laboured as the weight of apocalypse rose from his shoulders.
" It's... done " But it wasn't really, he knew it, it knew it. He would wander, endlessly, refusing to let the tech locked in his head free, or deny the chance for anyone to misuse it .
" Now ... " He slowly rose, staring the wasteland down, guarding it in a silent battle no other would ever be burdened with.
' Where to' He hefted one of his many rifles, his sword slung over his back, and stepped into the atomic wastes.
In the distance, Cooper Howard watched, watched the man whom made a joke of him and the raiders in less than twenty seconds, watched the man in alien armour and ripped robes, simply step into deadmans land, and into oblivion with a slow gait many wouldn't have if they had any path to follow.
' Who the fuck is that ' He burned the memory of the man into his mind, awed and terrified all at once, watching them walk over decayed lands until they finally vanished from sight entirely.
....
' It's... ' He stared across the scouring lands, black boots crunching sand and gravel underfoot as blistering heat passed over him. ' Not bad when I'm simply free ... '
He'd never really had a chance to simply be ... not since the day the bombs fell, not since the AI tried to trick him, not since he scoured the lands unmaking what he made. But right now, right here... he was free to explore the world he knew back in his home world as the functional universe of fallout.
" Hm ... " A disturbance of the sand drew his attention, as a radscorpip leapt up, its legs skittering across the land as it rushed at him, mistaking him for an easy meal.
For the first time in a long time, a smile slowly spread across his thin lips. He didn't run or turn tail, instead he simply pounced forward a single leap, arms held to the side in balled fists as he dove up and down, a sweeping leg crashing into the top of the scorpions chitinous head, splitting it open cleanly as his reinforced legs simply parted the things head on half.
" You'll do just " He ducked as the nearly dead Scorpio sent its pincher at his head, which might as well be moving in slow motion as he leant to the side, reached up and wound his hand around the stinger and with a simple tug, tore the appendage clean of the scorpions body.
" Fine " It fell away the next moment, it's last vestiges of energy falling away with the pincer now torn from its carapace, falling to the ground in a wet slump as it gargled ever so slightly, it's brain leaking from the hole he had kicked In its head.
" And dinner ... " He simply pulled the scorpion apart, letting its appendages simply splatter the ground as he bit into the under armour of the Scorpio without worry of being killed by toxins.
He never really had to worry about such things, having long ago replaced his stomach in favour of digestive cyberware that didn't care if he was eating straight uranium, it would make a usable resource of whatever he so much as shoved down his gullet.
' Atleast this doesn't taste like straight shit ' The viscus blood of the scorpion splattered his mouth, dripping down his cheek amd chin as he cast a glance back the way he came, the rolling his and large boulders.
" YOU KNOW MISTER HOWARD, I KNOW THE ONLY WAY BACK INTO TOWN IS THIS WAY, YOU DON'T HAVE TO HIDE, I'M AWARE YOU WEREN'T APART OF THOSE RAIDERS " he called to the hills he had just crossed, audio sensors reading a disturbance from somewhere not so far off as he raised the half of the decapitated scorpions head to his lips and continued to bite through played armour and eat the brain.
Only silence greeted his yell over the silent wastes, as he occasionally took a bite of the braincase with little worry for his environment.
' hm ... '
" MISTER HOWARD, YOU NEED NOT BE SCARED, IF I WANTED YOU DEAD I COULD KILL YOU FROM HERE, THERE'S NO NEED TO BE ALARMED... I'D RATHER NOT WALK THE REST OF THE WAY TO CIVILISATION ALONE " Cole called out, he wasn't lying either, with his strength he could locate a grenade longer than a football stadium, and with his optic sensors and audio relievers having replaced his organic eyes and ears, he knew exactly where the man that was once the vault boy was crouched.
He watched, the heat signature shifting nervously some hundred metres off, before
Seemingly coming to some kind of decision before slowly rising and stepping out from cover with his gun raised.
" You won't need that" he called across the distance between them, shrugging as he wiped his lips." it's really not going to do anything trust me "
He smirked as the ghouling man approached, his hat sat atop his head and old outfit which had stood the tests of time, finally came to stand infront of him with thin lips and a harsh glare.
" and whats ta stop me from puttin ya down ere " Mr Howard grunted, the sound of a round being chambered echoing through the waste's as the sun set in the distance.
" well... its " Cole smirked, and before Cooper could so much as twitch, he became a black blur on the world, smearing like a painting as he tore to the side before snapping forward and all but appearing Infront of coopers head in less than a fraction of a second, Cooper pinned under the unnaturally blue glow of Cole's gaze. " An exercise of futility "
" now " Cooper shivered as the next moment, Cole simply appeared behind his back within the time it took him to blink.
" lets eat ..."