POV Rio
After the interview, I had a few things to do around Boston while she got ready for our trip. I went back to Back Street Apparel to retrieve some loot and was surprised to see the Deathclaw had left. And it hadn't touched any of the corpses.
'Hmm, odd. Was it just passing through the area? No, as then it would still take a meal for the road. Nothing would disturb it. Or at least nothing sane.'
My Hoshigan* didn't see the Deathclaw within 2 km, so it seemed like it didn't stick around.
*(AN: I decided to call the magic eyes the Hoshigan, which means Star eye or something like that. I don't speak Japanese, so I'm not 100% sure. Figured it fit with the whole star motif and whatnot. But if you have a better suggestion, let me know. Another name I was thinking about was Mahōgan, which is literally Magic Eye, but I felt that was a bit too lazy. )
I also took this opportunity to wipe out and claim Hangman's Alley for myself. Not just for the Workshop in Boston, but the shipment of C.A.M.P.s that the Raiders were stupidly using as a table. They didn't even take them out of the box. Which I guess made sense, as it was a better table when in the box than out. The Raider gang was small. Only 8 members, so it was easy to get rid of them. During my shooting and looting, I did get some other neat loot.
I got Grognak the Barbarian Issue #8, Lost in the Snows of Lust. This gave a 5% bonus to Crit Damage with Melee and Unarmed Weapons. I also used this opportunity to attack and loot Marowski's Chem Lab near the Castle. It was a bit out of my way, but I was beyond glad I did it. The place was absolutely loaded with Chems. There were at least 100 of every Chem I could think of except X-Cell. The Chemists were also no issue to deal with, and once the place was looted, I just planted some bombs and let the place burn down. While also taking the chemistry equipment. The Chems were useless to me, but the sheer value of all those Chems was massive. And I didn't have to sell them to actual people; instead, I can sell them to the Workshop Vendors, which, from what I know, just makes the items disappear after 72 hours.
It was a win-win for everyone, even if it meant it would take longer to sell all the product, but that was better than letting it out into the streets. I also got a large shipment of goodies from Delta Squads' efforts in the Northern Commonwealth.
From the shipment, I got the Massachusetts Surgical Journal Issues #3 and #16. They boosted limb damage by a combined 4%. I got Grognak the Barbarian Issue #5, which gave another 5% boost to Crit Damage with Melee and Unarmed Weapons. Astoundingly Awesome Tales Issue #1 Attack of the Fishmen, which increased damage to Mirelurks by 5%. I also got Wasteland Survival Guide Issues #5 and #7. #5 seemed useless at first, since I had already been to Diamond City, but it gave a slight increase to reputation and gave me the knowledge of secret routes in and out of Diamond City. #7 was still much more valuable; it boosted swim speed by 25%. That may not seem like much, but it made me faster than most Mirelurks in water.
After those items came the less valuable magazines. A copy of Total Hack that allowed me to easily override turrets. Which I could already do. Tumblers Today Issues #4 and #5, which decreased the difficulty of unlocking locks. The magazine was practically useless, as I could already bypass any lock, but the slight decrease in difficulty was something. Unlike the next magazines. Taboo Tattoos Issues #2, #10, and #12. Not only were tattoos something I didn't care for, but they were all very simple designs that I could make myself. But since I was a collector, I still kept them.
After the magazines came a Bobblehead. It was the Science Bobblehead. It read "Going Back In Time Is Old School Thinking, My Friend, Allons-y!"
It made hacking much easier, and all technological creations would be twice as sturdy and reliable. So, for instance, if I made a robot, it would be twice as hard to destroy or kill. The hacking boost was practically useless, but it was okay since I got the other effect. It also did something I didn't expect. I was given 15 Skill Points to distribute freely. It seems like the points can't boost the skill beyond 100, but they can let me distribute the excess points elsewhere.
I decided to put the points into Unarmed. Increasing it to 64. The other loot was more interesting in different ways. It was mostly research on various things. Med-Tek was looted, and Delta Squad left with heaps of technological and biological research data. While the methods Med-Tek used before the War were unethical, they at least produced results. Delta Squad also retrieved a few samples of the Prevent antidote. Prevent had quite a few issues, but it was adequate for the job.
The next big collection of research data came from Vault 75. The Super Soldier Research done there was brutal, but they did actually produce results. Nothing on the level of the Marvel Universe, but it still created humans that are far superior to the average human. If what I saw in the research is correct, they had essentially created humans born with 10-12 in most Special Stats. 10 is generally the limit for most humans, so being born with those kinds of stats meant they were already beyond normal human limits. It should also be noted that Special Stats were not universally the same. A 10 Strength on a Deathclaw is vastly different from a 10 Strength on a Human. The Human would lose the Strength contest every time.
However, the downside of the research was that plenty of it was lost in a fire. And somewhat alarmingly, it was accessed remotely from outside the Vault. Most likely from the Enclave, as the Vault Experiments were mostly ordered by the Enclave. It was a bit worrying that the Xenophobic Fascists had access to Super Soldier Research, but I could only hope that they didn't get a chance to use it.
'Unless Frank Horrigan was a result of that research. It might fit, but not perfectly.'
Other Research consisted mostly of medical records and some minor technologies. Great for setting up a hospital and the like, but not much else. In Medford Memorial Hospital, they also looted a DIA cache. It was easy enough to reverse engineer the RFID device needed to open the caches. The loot from there and the hospitals gave us a massive increase in our medical supplies. Now, if we need them, we can be certain that the troops will be well cared for.
Other notable things they reported were the places captured for the Minutemen. Malden was cleared of hostiles. Taffington Boathouse was captured, adding another Settlement to our count. A sizable outpost in the West Everett Estates was also obtained. The plan was to deconstruct the settlement for materials and use it to rebuild Malden. Power needs were solved by capturing Poseidon Energy Turbine #18-F. Communications were secured with the capture of Relay Tower 0MC-810. We also got plenty of materials from the Irish Pride Industries Shipyard. It had plenty of materials that most people wouldn't even know what to do with.
Delta Squad also secured several of the bridges leading into Boston. They have gone as far East as Hub City Auto Wreckers, clearing out the Gunners there. And as far South as the Tucker Memorial Bridge, though they left it as is, as it has plenty of mines preventing travel over it. There were still some problem areas that couldn't be dealt with easily, such as Lexington, Cambridge, and the National Guard Training Yard, but so far, we had brought safe and secure living conditions to those who live in our territory. And I had plans to deal with those trouble areas eventually.
Other loot that was obtained was 3 sets of Power Armor: 1 set of T-45, another of T-51, and the last set being T-60. Several more could be obtained if we pushed into the North Eastern part of the Commonwealth, but we weren't ready for that. Or at least not completely. The next mission I had for Delta Squad was a bit tricky. We now had a full list of all Institute Informants and spies. I wanted to kill them all. But I wouldn't do so right away, no, instead, we needed to cripple the Institute. Which meant ot was time to clear out University Point.
The Plan was simple. Clippy would help us download all the data the Institute had. It would remain in the Institute systems, allowing us to always have an eye and ear on what they are planning. But we would repeat the strategy used in Malden. Capture a Gen-2 Synth, upload a virus to it, and send it back to the Institute. But this time it wouldn't be spyware. Instead, it would be a virulent pathogen taking over the entire Institute Network and hijacking the brains of most outdated Gen-1 and 2 Synths. The Institute is smart, but they have a terrible cybersecurity network, and very few people are proficient with computers. The only person I recall from the source material was Laim Binet, and he said he was able to get away with helping Synths escape for years without being caught despite the Institute knowing something was off.
The Institute was reliant on technology for almost everything. Specifically, almost everything was controlled by their network. Power, Food, Doors, Ventilation, and even the lights. So my virus would break the Institute for a while. I knew that they would eventually beat the virus, but during that time, they would be stuck in the Institute as the Molecular Relay requires a lot of power to operate, and they have no chance of getting that during the crisis I am about to bring down upon them.
Then there was the appalling security on all the Gen-1 Synths and many of the Gen-2s that made it laughably easy to control them. These hijacked Synths could then be controlled to do whatever I wanted. Which would mostly consist of breaking expensive equipment and destroying any physical records the Institute has. As I plan on leaving them with so little that they become crippled for years to come. I won't leave any digital records of their research. They will lose centuries of their work. Some things could be rerecorded, but much of what they made would be lost. And that's not even including the Synths I would control to kill key figures in the Institute.
The point being that when I am done with them, the Institute will no longer be a threat to the Minutemen or the Commonwealth. They will be too focused on trying to rebuild to think about stopping our unification. And if they do start to cause issues, we can just wipe them out with the time we get to prepare. I knew that trying to unite the Commonwealth would take time, and many would try to undermine or stop it. So the fewer enemies I had to worry about, the better. I already have to worry about the Brotherhood of Steel that is on its way or is about to be on its way to the Commonwealth. The Gunners that are more organized Radiers. And any other random faction I don't know about that might cause issues down the line.
'Let's just hope it all works out.'
The plan was risky, but even if it failed, it would be nearly impossible to trace it back to me or the Minutemen. And I could always fall back on the main story's idea to infiltrate the Institute. Assuming Brian Vergil wasn't already dead by Kellogg's hands. Which is why I needed to find Kellogg and kill him. He was dangerous and a wild factor that I would not want to mess with my plans. Which meant it was about time I paid the Valentine Detective Agency a visit.
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Author's Note:
So I thought of this plan a while back and really fleshed it out in this chapter. From what Laim Binet said in the game, Computer/Hacker experts are rare, and also based on Liam's ability to never be detected by the Institute even after several years, makes me think that they aren't the most computer savvy. And I can understand why. Why would they invest in terminal/computer security when the chances of any surface dweller or outsider ever reaching them are nearly zero? Even people who are arguably not genius hackers can create a program that can take lots of info from the Institute network with little issue. The only caveat I can think of is that the Institute created a virus to infect Liberty Prime, but that took, depending on how you look at the timescale in the Fallout games, minutes to hours. And we never really see how effective the virus really is, as Liberty Prime kills itself and the Brotherhood a few moments later.
So my thinking is that with a maxed-out Cracking and Science Skill, Rio could easily make a brutally dangerous computer virus. And then get it uploaded to the Institute's network, causing catastrophic damage. I also imagine the Institute would have everything connected to the cloud or network. Just seems like something they would do for convenience and never think about how it could backfire. It's a kind of vulnerability that many people have in our world right now. Who thinks of adding security to their toaster or washing machine? Not many, which gives easy access to many smart homes. I also imagine that the Institute would keep almost all their records on terminals not waste paper on physical records. Anyway until next time, Ciao.