After getting into your institute paint job power armor like a reverse oreo in your black stealth armor you head outside the settlement so as to hopefully not disturb your sleeping pets. You disappear in a corona of light and a ~’Thwok’~ of sound as you are transported to the institute. You make your way to synth retention first, only a single member of staff and the occasional courser or synth milling about. You request two support forms and fill out a duplicate of the one you’re submitting to synth retention. It includes your findings of newly born project giddy up buttercup’s being born unscannable with component scanners and for an autopsy to be performed to see if such components were absent or simply developing over the life cycle of post breach units. You pause and after your morality wrestles with your sense of security you decide to add an addendum to authorize vivisections if not enough samples were procured by the end of the week. Afterall if project giddyup buttercup wasn’t contained it could have untold levels of impact on the commonwealth.
“Give this priority review when processing reports please.” You add passing the form across the table as they nod, jot a few things down and stamp it before putting it in an empty box atop a second box with a handful of papers.
“Thanks, enjoy your evening.” You add casually before proceeding to bio sciences. The staff was busy here and without a receptionist you simply had to submit your report to the drop box.
“Evening director Johnson.” One of the lab assistants added while walking by.
“I need to review some files, any open terminals where I wont get in the way of evening operations?” You respond before they leave the desk. They point to a back-room area on the way to the FEV labs anyway so it worked out well enough. You head to the back room and pause after entering to refamiliarize yourself from your last infiltration a few months ago. You liked to keep yourself on your toes just in case security systems were updated in secret.
You angle your power armor so you are unnoticed exiting via the window and prop the arm on the keyboard and pop in a holotape into the terminal to run a simple command to scroll down through files slightly in random intervals of thirty to sixty seconds before queuing up some ‘reading’. You set your pip boy timer knowing this cover wouldn’t last forever and started it as you rand the holotape.
Crouching low you proceeded into the back hallways past the hydroponics. As you entered the back hallway it was obvious the area had been cleaned up since your last time through. The tables and chairs that had once been stored here had been moved and an array of wall cubbies for sliding pet carriers in and out had been installed. Thankfully there were no awaiting fluffies here to sneak past for now.
Proceeding through the doors in the back you pick the lock and proceed. The area beyond was refurbished and cleaned since your last visit. Thankfully no one was working at the desk to notice your entry from the window. The laser trip wires were still in place though and you gently arc your leg over it while supporting your weight against the wall with your arm. You were surprised they hadn’t even stationed a synth here to work the air lock and the decontamination archways which made it easy to get to the other side. Eying a bottle on the desk you lick your lips and pick the lock on the check point and close the door behind you as you put yourself in the corner while grabbing the cherry nuka cola off the desk.
You mount a dose of calmex into the stealth suit wrist receptacle that will feed into an iv over time once you push a button. You shift the helmet open and pop some home made berry mentats and chase them with some nuka cherry. Now you were awake and the colors were vivid to the point it felt like you could see electromagnetic fields and auras. With your chemically enlightened brain you began to ponder what kind of world this would be if you had discovered the world of chems before the bombs but you gently pushed thoughts of alternate time lines to the back of your head knowing you needed to focus. You wrap the bottle in paper and place it in a pouch on your belt deciding not to risk leaving dna evidence behind in a trash bin.
Beyond this point was where it got tricky with all the turrets. Upon opening the door you waited thirty seconds to make sure you were unnoticed and the motion trackers went back to passive scans after noticing the door. The paint job in the area was a fresh clinical white on the walls with friendly images of child like cartoon figures near top and bottom of the walls. With stealth field engage you make your way over to the far wall, pause and head to the door at the end with two turrets in overwatch above. After making your way beneath them you felt comfortable hacking the wall terminal from an arched squatting position. After picking through the robco code you hack in and turn the turrets off and unlock the door.
After proceeding through you pause. The desk in the corner had been cleaned up, most likely this was where someone worked during the daytime hours processing the intake of fluffies being returned. The Shelving had been restored and most of the components had been moved to one set while all the remaining shelving had been turned into floor to ceiling kennels. Dozens of fluffies were sleeping and the doors had apparently been updated to make less sound from opening and closing so as not to disturb them. Unfortunately if you were correct this was also where the Assualtron resided…
Sure enough you saw the unit pacing across the racks to check on the units left in its care. This gave you enough time to slink past before it turned around to continue its patrols. Once around the corner you took fifteen seconds to stabilize your breathing before continuing. If you weren’t on a timer you might have poked around the side rooms to see how they had been restocked but you could clearly make out that Cleanroom suits had been added to the initial locker room on the right.
You passed a series of test rooms as you proceeded. None actively occupied but various brick a brack littered on the floor like balls or blocks. As long as you avoided the cameras and the laser tripwires the turrets seemed not to notice you as you made your way to the back office and the wall terminal. Picking through the code you eventually shut off the turrets in case you need them down on the way back and unlock the door.
You were finally at the main laboratory where a series of fluffies floated suspended in the tanks supermutants once occupied. The previously broken tank had been restored and more had been added. Apparently, these were the first variants of each type they had stabilized and were keeping them for reference. You paused your review when you heard a sigh from a desk nearby and saw that a lab filling out paperwork. ‘Commendable but damn…’ You thought to yourself at the prospect of someone burning the midnight oil at the desk you had once retrieved the experimental treatment from. You positioned yourself to use the tubes for cover and continued hoping they’d be at this for a bit. You moved to the terminal and adjusted the volume down but you would still make some noise interacting with he keyboard.
It was unlocked and you proceeded to use minimal single keystrokes to page through and kept your eye on the person over your shoulder to make sure they hadn’t been alerted. You were very tempted to read through the entries but decided discretion was needed more and focused on what seemed like important entries. Some files had been redacted but you eventually found something of interest in the progress reports. Apparently, they had used the FEV as a sort of ‘binder’ to blend the various Dna into a singular organism before toning back the entity via an adapted form of virgils supermutant cure. If you had to guess this meant that every fluffy produced in the lab had dormant FEV in their system… This concerned you for a number of reasons but you’d have to get back to that. With your curiosity sated you logged out. Even though it was a longer route you doubled back the way you came since you had a sneaking suspicion that all master class passwords were monitored so someone could check when someone took down and put up the laser field to the main labs exit. This also allowed you to log back to all the terminals, delete your access logs and turn on all the turrets you’d turned off on your way through to reduce the evidence of your infiltration. You had to wait a few minutes for the assaultron to go and check on a group of fluffies again but made it back to the exit and your power armor with thirty seconds to spare. You docked and locked into your power armor before ejecting your holotape program and heading to the exit.
You were coming down off your chemicals hard and decided to go to your personal quarters instead of going home. If any part of you felt bad for not being available for your new pets on their first night it was promptly smothered by fresh clean sheets and a soft pillow against your naked skin after you stripped out of your stealth armor and put it in your bag in your locker.
You set your alarm to hopefully get up and get home before your fluffies wake up leaving you about six hours to sleep and you crashed hard. You opened your eyes as you floated in a green soup in a tube surrounded by the genesis fluffies in adjoining tubes. They rotated to face you and pipes sprouted between your tanks as bits of fluffy flesh began budding off the bodies and rapidly altering their forms into foals that were quickly aging as they made their way through the pipes to your tube.
Despite the liquid you could hear them clearly, it started as singular mewlings and peeps but soon voices of ‘Nyu daddeh?’ and similar queries began to poke their way through the growing sound of the tanks filling with fluffies. You were slowly forced up to the top of the tank as more and more fluffies invaded your tank giving you huggies and wub as they snuggled against you until the angry head of child synth shaun appeared at the top ; its facial characteristics disturbingly simplified like a childs drawing of a smiley face with dotted eyes and a smile before it opened the exaggerated smile into a hell mouth and devoured you whole.
You woke up with a groan, of course 5 minutes till your alarm. At least it was a vivid dream but you’d had worse nightmares. 6.5 out of 10. You turned off the alarm and gave yourself a rinse off before taking out general institute lab outfit from your locker for clothing before getting back into your power armor and heading home. You’d get changed to proper clothing once home and hung up the stealth armor on its display mount.
“I need some tea.” You mumble aloud before heading to make breakfast.
