POV Rio
We left the Vault, and I introduced my companions to Quiet. I had a feeling that I knew where Quiet was from, but it wasn't for sure, as when I summoned her, she was in really rough shape. It didn't matter, as from what I could tell, Quiet wasn't nearly as dangerous as she was before. She did look like Joshua Graham, with the fact that she was wrapped entirely in white bandages.
'I wonder if he is still around. I guess it depends on whether the Courier killed him or not. I doubt anyone could take him down otherwise. Well, besides infection. That could get him.'
POV Quiet
When I left the medical bay and saw the inside of the Vault, I was fairly surprised. The Vault was clearly made quite well. I also saw the clear signs of recent combat. But that was minor compared to when I entered the Vault entrance. The massive door was... impressive. It scared me as it seemed like Rio was telling the truth. I was scared that when we opened that door, I would see what he mentioned. A wasteland.
SCREEEEECH
The door opened with a loud screech and groan as the 200-year-old door opened. And when my eyes adjusted to the light... What I saw would never be forgotten. Dead and gnarled trees, a dead landscape as far as the eye could see.
As I walked out of the Vault, I was blind to everything around me. It took all my training not to fall to my knees in shock. It was clear to me that everything I ever knew was gone. I didn't have many connections, so that wasn't a problem, but I didn't want to admit that I was attached to my old world. It was full of issues, but it was still my world. It also meant I would never get my revenge.
POV Rio
I watch Quiet as she takes a seat on a rock and just stares into the distance. I could sense she was... troubled. It felt like she was a jumbled-up mess of negative emotions. I decided to let her be for now. She needed time to process what the world had become.
As I was going to talk with the others, I got an emergency message from Preston.
"What's going on, Preston?" I ask.
"We are picking up a massive object on radar. It seems the Brotherhood of Steel has arrived," Preston says with a slightly worried tone.
"Got it. That must mean they dealt with the giant Feral Ghoul near NYC," I responded.
They had arrived slightly earlier than anticipated, but that was fine.
"Our artillery is ready. Should we fire at them when they are in range?" asks Preston.
"No, we don't want to appear as the aggressors. The Brotherhood will start causing issues for others soon enough. They can't help but rob the people of the Commonwealth. Once they start acting like they usually do, the people will be more than willing to see their airship go down in flames," I reply calmly.
"If you say so General. I'll keep an eye on them in the meantime. Also, I was asked to let you know that University Point has been avenged. The only remaining Institute holdouts are Mahkra Fishpacking, Sandy Coves Convalescent Home, and Diamond City," Preston said.
"Excellent. Diamond City only has some agents and should be easy enough to deal with. As for the others, we can let the Brotherhood deal with them. Let the Brotherhood deal with that area. It's too risky to send out people there. And there's nothing of high value there. Oh, and tell Delta Squad to head to Nahant and clear it out. We will then garrison the area. I will deal with Libertalia personally soon," I reply.
"Yes, General," Preston replies.
"Good, and we should focus on securing what we have already. I want our people to be safe and protected. If we can retrieve any technology before the Brotherhood, then great, but if not, we can always just take it from them later. We should be ready in case the Brotherhood decides to start a war with us right away. I doubt it as they will be more focused on the Institute, but still, it never hurts to be prepared," I say.
"Got it. Don't worry, we will be ready in case those bigots try anything," Preston replies confidently.
"Glad to hear it. Is there anything else?" I ask.
"No, that was all. The tech and loot we got from our raids have been stored in the Castle's Lab," Preston replies.
The conversation ends there, and I focus on where we are going next. The Brotherhood was a decent enough threat, but it wasn't too big a problem to deal with. For one, I had plans to weaken them before we even started a fight. There was a large number of Feral Ghouls and Super Mutants near the Airport that the Brotherhood was likely to use. Combined with the numerous traps and turrets I had set up prior and the Brotherhood was in for a difficult time. Not to mention, with the Brotherhood's current policies, they would alienate almost everyone in the Commonwealth.
They won't try to collect taxes from Minutemen farms, as they will likely know enough to realise that it would cause a conflict. And while the Brotherhood is my sworn nemesis, they can still assess what to do logically. The Institute is the main reason they came here. They already ignored a Feral Ghouls Horde that numbers in the hundreds of thousands to come here. The Brotherhood would realise that fighting the Mintuemen while also dealing with the Institute would be difficult. And technically, the Minutemen haven't crossed any lines that the Brotherhood couldn't accept. We don't use advanced technology in an "evil" way, and the only other issue they might have is either that I am the leader or that we accept non-humans into the Minutemen. Neither of which is are good enough reason to risk taking artillery shells to the Prydwen. The ship isn't that maneuverable, so it's just an unnecessary risk.
As for Liberty Prime, I was fairly sure that I would destroy the Brotherhood long before they got him online. The only possible threat would be if they find Sentinel Site and start taking the Nukes. But I was also confident that we could sabotage any attempts to do that. They don't have an unlimited supply of Vertibirds, and transporting them overland would be brutal. That is assuming they can get a scientist to help fix Liberty Prime, as the current person isn't able to do it.
My plans were a bit simpler. I had a lot of research I needed to do, so I would lie low for a while. Do some exploration of the Mirror now that it is warm enough. Hoth was brutal during the winter. It was so bad that even the probe droids I made struggled to operate. But before that, I needed to deal with Libertalia. My plan for them was stupidly simple. Infiltrate first and take any high-value items. Then leave and use Sovereign Tsunami to wipe out the entire Raider camp. Using the skill while in the ocean would cause devastating effects. Even if some survive, there wouldn't be many, and they would be injured or at least confused and in chaos. Then I just clean up any survivors and loot whatever I can find or salvage.
Before we did any of that, I flew just a bit south into the Glowing Sea and activated Relay Tower 0DB-521. It wasn't really needed. I also salvaged the crashed Vertibird and Skylanes Flight 1665. The materials would be used for future aircraft. But by then, I just decided to loot everything I could from the Glowing Sea. I let everyone else take a break at Vault 95 while I quickly ran around and gathered what I needed.
The loot was decent. I found the almost perfectly intact Stingray Deluxe Jet. It would need some repairs, but I was confident I could get it working again. The issue of Jet Fuel was a non-issue as long as I made some alterations. I found plenty of scrap, which was nice. Most of it was from the several factories in the area. I found a full set of Raider Power Armor. Honestly, it was basically worthless to me. It was just poorly made and not worth using, but I still took it. I did go into Sentinel Site as I was in the area, and the Feral Ghouls didn't fight me thanks to the mask I had. I completely ignored the Child of Atom and entered the stockpile room. Then I took everything and instantly transferred it to the Castle's Inventory. There were quite a few Nukes in Sentinel Site; in the end, I had 196 Mark 28 Nukes.
Now that was more Nukes than I ever had a use for, but that was fine. At least nobody else had them. I left the facility once I had everything of value and ended up paying a visit to the Children of Atom in the Crater. I sold some things to them and got some info from them. It turned out there wasn't much of value in the area. They also tried to get me to join their cult when they realised I was immune to Radiation. Apparently, most members mutate to have immunity, which is often how they determine if someone is a true follower of Atom. I politely declined.
I talked to the local Deathclaws to see if they knew of anything that was interesting to me. I couldn't communicate fully with them, but I was able to express what I wanted and interpret what they responded with. They led me to a few interesting places and piles of junk. One of the places was a field that was super radioactive due to fuel rods from the nearby Nuclear Power Plant landing here. But the really valuable find was a new ore. I had some memories of it and was beyond ecstatic that I found some. It was Ultracite. There wasn't much of the ore, as it requires coal ore to get hit by a Nuclear Warhead, but what I got was plenty. Besides that, I got some more aircraft materials and some old weapons.
As for the more specialized loot, I found several Perk Magazines. There were Astoundingly Awesome Tales #12 and 13, which granted +5% damage against Ghouls and +5% Radiation Resistance, respectively. I got several Mini-Nukes and more ammo. My last planned stop was Virgil's lab.