(sorry for the lack of fluffies in this chapter.)
You woke up early with your pip boy alarm and prepared yourself. You went to the Garage and eyed the various power armor frames each with their unique paint jobs. ‘Cant wear my institute paint job today…’ You think knowing that you didn’t want to make your association too obvious.
“Looks like im going with the Blue Butcher.” You add patting the Quantum paint jobbed X-01. You have a bit of nostalgic memories of slaughtering the raiders of Nuka world in it after you’d grown tired of the overboss thing and decided to free the merchants and slaves to form a proper community. You treated it like another settlement and hadn’t been back since you started instituting a robotic park cleanup. You were tempted to bring in a maintenance team and truly restore the place to its former glory. After checking the systems to make sure everything was green you got inside.
“Lets rock.” You add teleporting to the institute.
You visit robotics first. After a short chat with Dr Binet he introduced you to the copies of Dr Amari and Irma in institute Jumpers. “Should suffice for what we need.” You add putting down a duffle bag. “Here’s your disguises.”
“Disguises?” The three look at you curiously.
“It’d draw attention if someone knows the targets are in the building, when another set goes in the building. Once the Amari and Irma are prepped for extraction these two will come inside and swap outfits with their counterparts and resume their lives according to the operation.” They look inside with a hint of curiosity and puzzeled looks.
“I’ll explain the operation on the concourse with the Coursers so I don’t have to brief twice. Join us when you’re changed.” You add exiting robotics and heading over to synth retention.
Acting Director Ayo was drinking coffee with a pair of Coursers in uniform on standby. “Whom am I working with today?” You add not recognizing the two.
“This is A five five dash H Zero.” It was a good thing you were in power armor so they couldn’t see your face.
“I’ll call you Ash if I need to address you in public.” You say really wanting to call him Ass-ho/hole due to the designator.
“Noted.” They added in a monotone response.
“And this is E eight eight dash Eff El zero.”
“I’ll call you Eddie if I need to address you in public.” You really wanted to ask if Ayo was fucking with you with a designation that made you think ‘EBB and Flow’.
“Acknowledged.” They added in a similar monotone response.
“Enthusiastic I love it. Alright here’s your disguises.” You add putting down the duffle bag. “Get equipped and meet me on the concourse for debriefing.”
“Here’s something for deployment.” You add handing Ayo a holotape.
“What’s this?” They add curiously.
“It’s my pip boy automap of Goodneighbor. Use it if you need to verify your own deployment maps if mines more up to date. I’ve marked areas I’d be interested in receiving reinforcements from. Out of curiosity, how am I signaling if I need the additional forces?”
“What’s good for the goose.” He adds passing you a different holotape. “Play that tape with your radio on the classical station and we’ll get the signal.” As he says this the Coursers are already stripping with no sign of shame or reluctance to put on their disguise.
You load up the tape and head to the synthetic lawn. Your team of four synths eventually arrive. Their clothing resembling construction worker outfits. The females had welding visors in addition to the hard hats. “Good to see everything fits within reason.” Ill fitting clothing was actually a better as a disguise with how much people needed to settle for what they could find in the commonwealth. “I’ll be deploying first outside of goodspring to secure the deployment zone and ensure it’s not being watched. I’ve arranged for a provisioner to bring us supplies to support our cover story. We’ll be setting up scaffolding outside of the memory den and closing off the entrance on the premise of construction and maintenance to the building.”
“Eddie, Ash you’re on bouncer duty and to keep anyone from coming in due to it being a ‘hard hat area’ while pretending to work. I’ve hired a few hands as well to help assemble the scaffolding so just support them with what skills you have and you should be fine. Once the scaffoldings up, put up a tarp so no one can see the entrance. By the time you’re done with that, I should have our secondary targets secured. At which point I’ll come out, we’ll send the other workers on break and I’ll bring in Amari and Irma here to swap places with their counterparts and send the originals back for retention. After that I’ll need some time to secure the primary objective and install its proxy that’ll be delivered with our supplies. If you finish the building maintenance before I finish my own work then we’ll dismiss the team and lock the door putting up the closed sign. At which point Eddie and Ash will keep watch somewhere nearby while trying to remain inconspicuous. Clear?”
“Crystal.” Irma replied and the coursers nodded.
“Excellent. I’ll see you in five.” You add teleporting into the other side. It took you a minute to deal with some wild dogs and two minutes to patrol out to where you could see the provisoner waiting by the entrance and then back to where you’d receive the others.
When the others arrive you escort them to meet the provisioner and workers. “These them?” The provisoner adds.
“I said I’d bring assistants, didn’t I?” After a quick exchange with the workers exchanging fake names and whatnot you pass through good neighbor. You draw a bit of looks but people return to what they’re doing after a short time.
“I’ll let the owners know we’re setting up and clear out the other guests.” You add as you head inside as Eddie puts up a ‘closed for renovation’ sign on a stand.
After entering the memory den you proceed inside. Irma looks up from her tv program from her couch curiously. It is not often she gets a customer in power armor and was surprised further when they went into the back room with Kent. You exit your power armor in front of the doorway so even if someone could open it they couldn’t get in or even look past.
“Oh it’s you.” Kent adds as you hold up your finger to your mouth and step in.
“Sorry Kent, we forgot to let you know in advance that the Den’s going to be under renovation today. Could I ask for you to find something else to do today?” You add producing a bag of caps.
“Have some fun or a nice meal on me.”
“. . .” Kent seemed suspicious at first but brushed it off. He owed you for convincing him to keep living and for going through all the trouble of pretending to be the silver shroud on occasion. “I understand. Let me just que up some stories.” He adds and you head over to your power armor just as you hear a knock.
“Kent, is everything alright dear?”
“Just fine Irma, I’ll be out in a minute.”
“No need to rush on my account.” She added somewhat confused since Kent usually didn’t leave his office until closing and sometimes not even then.
You get back into your power armor and wait there facing the door in case it opened. After a few minutes he approaches. “We’re coming out.” He adds to make sure she made enough room. “Looking forward to seeing how things turn out.” He adds as he makes his way to the exit and you extend your arm slowly to prevent her from following or calling out to ask about that.
“For what it’s worth, im sorry Irma.”
“Oh it’s you, we have nothing to talk about~” But before she can tell you to get out you already had out your syringer loaded with lock joint and plugged her. As she started to stiffen and fall you caught her with your free arm and moved over to the couch. You gagged her mouth and let her drop on her stomach before handcuff her hands behind her back and her feet to the couch legs.
“I’ll be right back.” You add loading up your next injection. Dr Amari looks up from her terminal as you enter the room as your footsteps give you away.
“Well Shi~” she freezes in place after glancing down at the needle in her shoulder as the lock joint takes effect. You gag and restrain her in a similar fashion before heading upstairs thankful that there was no one visiting today to be a complication. You noticed her finger was hovering above the delete key though and made a mental note to check the computer after the two were secured.
You head outside as the two struggle against their bonds and nod out to Irma and Amari synths who come inside. You head outside and grab a crate to bring in.
“Here you are ladies.” You say to the synths. “I hope you’ll forgive my scrutiny but I cant risk a swap.” You add dosing the two with a pax syringer to hopefully make them non combative as you hand the synths the handcuff keys.
“Understood director.” Irma synth adds more then ready to get out of the uncomfortable disguise while performing a playful strip tease.
You stood guard with the syringer at the ready with lockjoint in case either of the two got uppity. You might have watched a little too carefully but thankfully your power armor helped it not seem so obvious. Both sets were eventually down to their undergarments before you finally respond. “Leave the rest.”
“But director, those are my favorite.” Irma synth adds a playful undertone.
“You’ll survive.” You add knowing there’s no way she can know that as you find it highly unlikely that the institute had extensive knowledge of Irmas underwear drawer. But if analyzing wardrobes discreetly was part of making up the dossier then you’re all the more impressed.
The two dressed up in their originals outfits and the originals ungagged themselves and rubbed their wrists. “They’ll know they’re fake and we’re missing.” The Doctor responded.
“Perhaps eventually but I would have been the only one capable of doing anything about it.”
“Perhaps you’re right…” She adds as if that’s all the more reason it was disappointing you had joined the institute. She grunts as she gets darted and gagged again. Irma only gets off a single call for help before she too is darted and gagged. You place the two in the padded crate, arms cuffed behind their backs and cuffs cuffed to the others cuff chains. You seal the top and put a transmitter on the top as you move to the exit.
As you look out the door Alex and Eddie nodded and the guys were sent on break. “Alright, time to take a picture of our progress for record.” You say getting out your camera prop as you close the tarp cover. “Mind the flash.” You say to no one as the crate disappears in a flash of light. You toss a prepared burnt-out bulb in the nearby trash bin as if disposing of a flash bulb in case someone was listening.
You head back inside and lock the door. Irma synth gives you a wave before returning to her show as you make your way downstairs. “I doubt you’ll have all her expertise with this but you can help with the uninstall.” You add to the Doctors Synth before exiting your power armor. “But first, lets see what she was trying to hide.”
You add going over to the computer. It was a series of reports. Yep the doctor had been contacted by the new cell. Apparently they were having trouble with unruly synths. “Hah, looks like they got smarties.” You add with a snort. Apparently they were so annoyed with them that they were hoping Amari would be able to reformat them with new memories so they weren’t such assholes since they were all but impossible to home with synth sympathizers until… “Damn.” You muttered noticing the line ‘until they could be smuggled out of the commonwealth.’
You knew it was something that occurred occasionally, but you prided yourself on missions you undertook and you had no intention of failing this quest. “Lets get to work.” You eventually say to Ayo and the two of you detach the modified memory loungers and associated hardware for transport.
There would be more then enough supplies to build a prop version in case it was needed and that would be Amari’s pet project. But for now you headed upstairs. You exited your power armor and checks the two ladies quarters in case there were any more hidden communications or the like.
“Honestly, putting hands on a ladies delicates. Have you no shame.” Irma adds toyfully tapping you with her fan.
“Sorry, agents made contact already. Double check in case I missed anything. Hopefully they didn’t go over new codes and procedures and pass phrases in person.” You add as if to say that they’d be out of luck in such an incident. Hopefully they’d overlook it though if it was the case. You felt relatively sure the room wasn’t bugged though but you couldn’t be certain.
It was time to make a report. You eventually vanished with the lounger back to the institute. The coursers would instruct the laborers to break down the scaffolding in the morning and left town to recall for another mission. You were happy the operation had gone smoothly and yet disappointed as you were looking for an excuse to chop up some gangsters.