Adam, of course, first had the idea of bringing the destitute ghouls into his Vault. It had the room for them after all, but he hesitated in doing that. After all, he did not know them that well yet. Maybe with time he could get to know them but their situation was enough that they needed resettlement soon not later. Not to mention that he was already considering the food issues in the Vault, if he took in even more people, who clearly lacked food to begin with, it would turn his food issue from something to solve later into something to solve now.
"Before I throw out this idea…" Adam said slowly. "I do have a place in mind but have you considered moving to The Raft? Or The Pier? Building a new home will be an incredible challenge."
"We thought about it, those places you mentioned, but the Raft pulled up her bridges a while ago, no one comes in or out, as far as I hear. And as for The Pier… well I can stand the management I suppose, but living on a boat would make me queasy." He chuckled softly. "But truthfully The Pier is full, more so than they like to admit." Adam nodded slowly and then Arden smiled softly at him and continued.
"My lad… we all settled here hoping to build something new, this may be our home but we aren't married to it, we all are willing to put in the hard work if the effort is worth it." Adam nodded.
"Then I have a place in mind, it's well fortified, has a built-in generator, and access to water from an underground reservoir fed by the lake directly. Its main entrance is easily defensible and I believe it has a second exit but I'm not sure if it's still operational, which is good or bad depending how you look at things." Adam paused and then looked him in the eyes. "The Federal Ration Stockpile." Adam said seriously. Arden looked at Adam very confused.
"Lad, that place is crawling with Super Mutants. I don't mean to offend but we hardly have the means to defend ourselves, let alone clear out a number of super mutants."
"Oh." Adam said with some surprise. "I cleared them out already."
"Y-you… did what?" He said still very confused.
"Yeah, before I went around Chicago gathering forces for the battle with Famine's horde I gathered up my team and we cleared the place out… of both mutants and stuff but that is neither here nor there." He chuckled. "Not only is it clear and still in mostly good standing, it once was used as a home for some survivors so there are beds and things down there already, though you will probably have your work cut out for you to… de-super mutant the place." Arden leaned in a bit, turning one eye closer to Adam.
"You are not pulling my leg are you?" He asked seriously.
"No, not at all." Adam smiled.
Arden leaned back and sighed as he scratched at his scalp now.
"That's practically on the other side of Chicago… I doubt we could make it that far without encountering trouble." Arden said, looking more on board with the idea now but still hesitant. Adam paused and thought to himself for a moment before responding.
"What if we were to escort you?" Adam asked.
"You three?" Arden said as he looked at Adam and his companions.
"Oh no, we have a lot more people than can take part." He grinned. Arden remained silent for a few moments before he turned to look at the impromptu community they had built up here.
"I will need to… talk this over with the others, after all I may have been the one lucky enough, or unlucky depending on your perspective, to act as the face of the community but I am no leader. A lot of us came here on our own but if you are offering…" He paused and then looked back at Adam.
"How much is this going to cost me?" He asked suspiciously.
"Uhhh…." Adam started, caught off guard by the question. "I'll be honest, I don't know. Not offhand anyway. I'd need to think it over, but I'm sure we can come to a reasonable agreement." Arden nodded slowly.
"Alright I'm going to speak to some of the others, make yourself at home, if everything you say is true it might truly be a good place to start a new home." He said before slowly walking away.
Adam let him walk away and stayed in his thoughts for a few moments. There were, after all, a lot of things to consider now. He had not started today thinking he was going to help a settlement exodus but here he was.
The FRS was definitely the best place he could come up with on the drop of a hat. It was secure, had solid infrastructure, and still had some scattered resources that Adam and his crew left behind when they raided it. It was not much, as they took great strides to get most of it, but for a new community what was left was a halfway decent start. He was fine donating it to them. They would still need to come up with better defenses, after all one untrained guard at the front is not enough but perhaps they could be trained? Maybe Salvatore could do that, if he was willing. Or… he did now have an extra protectron hanging around the Vault. One more protectron wouldn't really make a difference to him, but to them, a group of new settlers trying to make a home, a single protectron could make a huge difference.
Protectrons were not known for their combat capability, or their speed, or their intelligence, or anything especially for that matter. However there was a reason Protectrons stayed on the Market and remained the most popular model of robot for companies and businesses across the US, besides the cheap price. Protectrons were, undeniably, decent guards. They definitely packed more firepower than necessary when it came to unarmed civies, and in this post-apocalyptic future their effectiveness definitely dwindled. However, they were still metal shells that could function even when heavily damaged, they fired high powered lasers, and were easy to repair. Adam may have his pick of the litter when it came to robots, even having a Mark I sentry bot sitting in the vault at the moment, but to an average person a protectron was not something to thumb your nose at.
None of this was concrete though, after all there was a lot of effort that went into fixing that protectron up, Eric put a whole day into it. But if they could sell it to them for a good price and make some friends in the process that could make a huge difference.
If the FRS was rejected as a solution he did have a few other ideas, but none that are anywhere nearly as good. He did have his safehouse, it used to be a military FOB and still has beds and even a turret. But it was his safehouse, even if he had still never used it he'd rather not give it away.
Then there were a slew of other places he had scavenged in the past but were in too rough of shape or the wrong kind of structure to make a home. The mall would be ideal. After all, it used to be a home to people, even if those people were raiders. But he never went back to clean out the rest of the lakelurks, there was no need to, so it would not do well as a home for these folks. No, if they said no to the FRS he was simply out of options for them, he would wish them well and move on. But man, how does he always end up getting caught up in the most random things? At least this time he brought it on himself, he offered after all. Whatever, helping people was always worth the time and effort, especially when he can make some caps on the side too.
Adam decided to head into the one place that he was definitely sure was a store while he waited. It was labeled as such with red paint over the doorway.
"Well how do you do? Smoothskin?" A cheeky tone said from across the counter in the small shop.