The tank was cramped for once. Me, Piper, Cait, Tim and Katy were in it, but it was the new weapon that occupied a lot of space.
A pair of rectangular barrels took the place where the two cannon barrels used to be, while the interior bits for the weapons nearly ate up the entire turret space. The research bots had come up with basically a suped up rail gun based off the gauss rifles from Tupile’s storage. Each barrel had its own power generator, which accounted for some of the bulk. The rest was due to the ammunition and loading mechanisms.
Some general redesigns were also implemented, making the whole tank’s silhouette less boxy by sloping the hull and smoothening the turret frame, and removing frankly useless bits like those things sticking out its back (useless cooling coils and stowage) and the bracing on the forward tracks (no fucking idea what it’s meant to do).
In the end it transformed from a blocky, bulbous abomination to something more akin to a GDI’s Mammoth Tank sans the missile pods. Thanks to console tweaks, the whole thing was also significantly lighter after I switched out the composition from ceramic/steel layering to Zetan spaceship metal, which could handle orbital crashes. Also upped the DT and DRs on the whole thing, of course. The change of materials made the tank significantly lighter, which was a plus for long term power usage.
I mean, it’ll still splat anything under its tracks, but the stain will sit in a shallower hole now.
We towed one of the improvised battlebus, which was now improvised again to be a prison bus for our four captives. They would be spending their entire journey in it, including for meals, toilet breaks (just put a small hole at the back attached to a toilet) and sleepy time. I just hopped in every now and then to confirm the route to their hometown.
Turns out the journey wasn’t too far if you’re driving, taking less than a day to head west beyond Natick to find a small but decently maintained mall with a wooden palisade protecting it.
We disembarked, making a show to march our fully cowed prisoners to stop just outside the gates and the rapidly assembling crowd of settlers.
My four other tank passengers stood behind a prisoner each and had guns at the ready, while I stood in front of the lineup to address the settlers of Mall Pass.
“I’d like to confirm, are these men with you? Arnold Spalds, Chuck Havlon, Lamar Stein, and Tommy Rodds.”
There were reluctant nods from the settlers, and I noted a few women and children wearing particularly worried expressions. Probably the family then.
So not raiders, which meant no Dalek-ing.
I adjusted myself a bit and tried to put on an officious pose. “Right then. These four men have been found guilty of abusing the courtesy of our settlement. Despite the open welcome, one of them-”
I heard Cait push Chuck forward, causing him to stumble and trip from his bound ankles. He squealed as his oversensitive groin probably rubbed against something. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I ramped up the sensitivity of his miniaturized genitals quite a bit.
“-harassed one of our residents, a girl who was barely an adult.”
The wide-eyed stares and buzzing mutterings was a nice reaction, so I moved on. “Despite her stern and clear refusal, he persisted and then attempted to abduct her from the premises. When stopped and confronted, your Chuck then proceeded to draw his weapon and threaten violence on our residents present, who at the time were children, teens and young adults. All unarmed. The other three of your fellows then decided to aid him, drawing their own weapons as well.”
Surprise, shock and disbelief were clear on the settlers’ faces, especially when I laid out a hologram I cloned from the Tupile to give a silent playback of the events as taken from Curie and other robots witnessing at the time. I had Curie edit the footage to minimize the robots’ appearances for PR’s sake. The gasps of horror spiked when they watched good ol’ Chucky fire at brave Nat who intercepted the shot. Then Curie swept in along with an angry Cait.
Good stuff, this show.
“Chuck then proceeded to fire his weapon, wounding one of our residents-” With a slight bruise, barely visible, but still. “-before being subdued. Thankfully, his friends were also subdued in time before they could consider joining in the shooting spree.”
As we discussed, the other three captives were pushed forward, eventually tripping and dropping to the ground or to their knees. I heard Piper running to the tank.
“Punishment has been rendered onto Chuck for his violent idiocy. We are now here to return your people, and to send a message.”
I waited for a bit before giving a lazy raise of my left arm. I could hear the turret of the tank turn, followed by the dust-kicking thunderclap as both barrels fired. I didn’t need to turn to know that the hypersonic rounds hit a ruin in the distance that we’ve marked for the occasion. The eyebots above us had confirmed it was occupied by super mutants.
The shockwave from the explosions knocked settlers down from sheer surprise rather than force, and a quick glance showed the silhouette of the target replaced with a column of smoke.
Not anymore, I think.
“Effective range of a few miles.” I said aloud to catch the attention of the shocked settlers. “Next time you send a fuckwit over to us, I’ll raze this place before you even know it.”
I gave a signal for Cait and the others to unbind our prisoner’s ankles and wrists to set them free, then turned to the four men.
“Go.”
They quickly got up and ran past me to the town gates, except for Chuck, who had a weird limp as he was likely trying to avoid his groin contacting his pants. I just picked up the hologram player and led my people back in the tank which turned its barrels menacingly towards the settlement.
“Clear message you think?” I asked Cait and the couple as we got to the tank. Cait rolled her eyes in amusement, while Katy and Tim were clearly impressed judging from their nods.
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“If they didn’t get it, we’d be doing them a favor by wiping this place out,” Tim commented, eyeing the column of smoke before he climbed up the tank.
We headed back for New World 81 in high spirits after the excellent first showing of the tank’s firepower. Maybe I should give this tank a proper name? But ‘tank’ is easy enough to say...
After we got back and the ‘Glossu’ was sent back to the underground garage for further refinement, I made my way to Vault 81 to catch up with Gwen and update her on our new policies.
“I guess it was inevitable,” she said somberly as we sat in her office. “At least nobody was hurt.”
“Nobody from my side, anyway,” I remarked as I leaned into my seat and noticed how much more relaxed the overseer was after our breeding session. “Anyway, moving forward, New World 81 won’t change its protocols, but the kids and Curie might understandably be a bit less hospitable to visitors.”
Gwen nodded. “Makes sense. I’ll organize participants for the joint shooting lessons. I’m sure the chance to leave the vault would be a big draw for many.”
There was a pause, and I got the feeling that there was something awkward she wanted to bring up.
She cleared her throat politely before she started, signalling that it really was going to be an awkward issue. “On a separate topic, regarding the...breeding you’ve generously provided, I’m afraid to say that the program was a complete failure.”
That got my attention and surprise. I sat up, but waited for her to elaborate.
“It wasn’t due to sabotage or such, but Dr Forscythe with the help of Dr Penske was able to collect some...relatively fresh...samples of your...well, sperm, from the candidates.”
Had to admit, watching Gwen fumble her words made her seem kinda cute, though the subject matter was weirding me out a bit. They collected sperm samples from the girls after our sessions?
You could do that?
The vault overseer was blushing heavily as I remained silent. “The samples that were viable were frozen, and after confirmation of the failures, Dr Forscythe conducted an experiment, and...”
Gwen gave another cough and handed me a file for me to read the rest of the details. I flipped through it, find that the doc had a harvested egg on the slide and tried to artificially inseminate it with my samples. The pictures from a microscope reminded me of education programs on egg fertilization.
Except the egg cell was deformed and studded almost all around with sperm. According to the doctor it had been, and I fucking quote, ‘severely compromised from aggressive overpenetration, resulting in complete failure of the cell instead of polyspermy’.
So...my sperm cells gangbanged the egg to death? The flying fuck?
Wait, is there anything in console for that? Might need to check later.
“So...I’m an unsuitable donor?” Can’t really come up with an excuse here. “Ah well...sorry for the waste of time,” I lamely offered.
Gwen shook her head, smiling rather warmly. “It’s not a complete waste, I’m sure the other...candidates would agree with me. And it was our side that decided for direct breeding instead of working with samples first.”
She gave a quick lick of her lips and glanced away with embarrassment. “I guess we were too...eager and reckless for the appeal of the more straightforward action.”
“I...see.” The conversation withered to a pitiful death as I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was infertile due to overaggressive swimmers. With nothing else to talk about, I got up and made to leave before Gwen stopped me.
“Failure or not, there’s been requests from the others for further...sessions with you, if you could accommodate them.” She gave a light shrug and a lopsided smirk. “Who knows, you might get lucky and get a successful result.”
I mean, willing pussy is not something I’ll turn away, not from these ladies. “Uh...okay… I’ll be a bit busy though, so might have to reschedule for another time?”
She gave a slow nod of understanding. “I’ll pass it on to the others and we’ll work on something for you to have a look at and confirm.”
And then there was a mischievous smile that felt out of place for the usually collected overseer as she got up. “Are you pressed for time now?”
Like I said, not turning away willing pussy.
“I’ve got some time I guess,” I said with a shrug and walked over to Gwen, who was already getting out of her jumpsuit.
I left the office surreptitiously, locking the door behind me to give the overseer some time to recover. Hopefully we were quiet enough.