Returning to the Repcon rocket maintenance room was straightforward and only took us yet another hour of travel.
"Have you found the modules?" Chris asked flatly.
"Yep, here you go." I say as I push the things I had taken out of my inventory before coming down the ladder into his hands.
"Indeed you did. And they seem to be in excellent condition. I'll have the others set these in place and then the Great journey can begin." He said as he looked the modules over before ignoring us to go deliver the things like a good soon to be abandoned dog.
We watched as a ghoul came up from the launch pad and took the modules. We watched as Chris walked them through the installation process clearly not realizing how off it was that he wasn't doing it himself. Finally Jason began to give a speech before the ghouls loaded up into the rockets.
"Gather all! May the creator guide my words and help me speak true! The almighty creator has seen fit to answer our prayers! The time has come for us to board the rockets and begin the Great journey. Though it may seem that all humans despise us, the creator has seen fit to instruct us differently. The journey ahead would have been impossible if not for the intercession of four human friends. Three new. The other a long abiding companion. To our new friends we say thanks and promise never to forget how they cleared from our path the demons who sought to stay our journey." he paused slightly, not a hesitation so much as to catch his breath.
"And to Chris, we award no thanks. Chris, you have made this Great journey a reality! From this moment forward you will be remembered as the Saint of the Great journey. We shall never forget you. I ask that you forgive us Chris and give us your blessing. And we bestow ours on you. Seekers! Board the rockets! Take your seats, The Great journey awaits! To the promised land we go! To the far beyond!" He finally finished.
"Gods that guy loves the sound of his voice. Hey Chris! Buddy, pal, how you feeling?" I said earning a speechless look from Jess.
"Did you hear him? My god, I'm no ghoul! They were using me all along!" he said with a tone stuck between horror and self depreciation.
Truly a delicious combo.
"Well, to be fair. They WOULD take you if it weren't for the teensy tiny little fact you'd die from the attempt." I said cheerfully.
"And dying would be worse than this!? Being used and then thrown away like garbage!?" he demanded with his emotions switching to anger.
"Not garbage. Garbage is useless. Think of it more like an old shirt. Sure it's got no more of it's original use but you could always use it for other things. Like oil rags, or patches for other shirts." I say helpfully.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with that!?" he demanded face red.
"Why not try to put your expertise to use? Theres a town called Novac not far from here that would be very happy to have you. Isn't that right Boone?" I said confidently.
"Things are always in need of repair in Novac. An expert wouldn't be amiss." the stoic man said backing me up.
"Life among humans again. Fuck it, i'll give it a try. Maybe this time it will be different. You go launch the rockets, i'm heading to Novac." Chris said a little reluctant with the idea.
"Yeah cool, where's the console though? Cuz, like, you never said." I pointed out before he could leave.
"It's upstairs where we were hiding from those THINGS." he said before heading for the ladder topside.
"So we just go press a button and that's the end of this?" Jess asked hopefully and I nodded.
"Yeppers, we hit the button and all the ghouls go bye bye. Mission accomplished. Then we go mug Manny for the aggravation of having to deal with this when he could have just told us where the ass hat who shot you went. Actually is it mugging if we aren't actually trying to rob him?" I said pausing in thought at the end.
"According to my database that's just aggravated assault." Adam said clarifying the matter.
"Right, that. We are going to go do one of those to him." I said nodding in understanding.
"Yeah, no. Not saying this wasn't a lot of effort for a shit payout but I don't think he actually knew it would be. He probably just thought it was feral ghouls we had to deal with." Jess said vetoing me.
"Come on! Please? Like maybe break at least one leg? He doesn't need that to use a sniper right?" I asked Boone looking for back up only for him to take a sudden interest in the nearby broken machinery.
"You have been out voted. Democracy for the win!" Jess said smugly.
"I don't get to have any fun." I whine petulantly.
"You couldn't be vetoed if you were an emperor, just saying." Adam chimed in.
"Can you stop with that? The answer is still no." I said rolling my eyes.
"What's going on?" Jess asked confused.
"Oh, Adam has been trying to convince me to found an empire to take over and fix the world ever since I told him how bad it is. I keep telling him I ain't interested. Let some other shmuck try and fix this hell hole." I explained with a shrug.
"All of my data says he has a solid seventy percent chance of success given all the factors I am aware of. The last thirty percent is accounting for lethal foolishness, divine intervention, total planetary destruction and madness." Adam said as if trying to get them on it's side.