You approach the console after arriving and hit the intercom. “This is director johnson requesting a loader team to handle cargo.” You get out, stretch and sit down. You drink some water and wipe away some sweat from a long days work as you await your work team. Your back was getting sore carrying the institute this hard. A team of four gen 2’s show up with a hovering platform. You write a note and pin it to the box explaining what the device is and for them to assess if there was room to install it in the area where synth shaun used to stay. If not begin to familiarize yourselves with it as you’d be requisitioning assistance to properly install it elsewhere. “Bring this to Advanced systems.”
You sigh after the synths leave and proceed to wipe down the interior of the power armor before getting back in. Thankfully you still had another hour or so until the labs closed so you decided to head to synth retention first.
“I hope this toy of yours was worth the lost day of work for my coursers johnson.”
“Probably not, but this is.” You add producing a holo tape. “The new cell has indeed contacted the doctor, they’re looking for help dealing with smarties.” You hold up your hand as if to stop him. “It’s still unclear if they were responsible for the missing signals or not but they are trying to smuggle them outside the commonwealth.”
Ayo reviews the holotap contents behind the reception counter. “Any good news?”
“Well~ for the next month we can probably increase our confirmations of railroad sympathizers if a fluffy is noticed in someone’s care.”
“Other then yourself I hope.” You hope his tone was more of a sarcastic jab.
“Yes and those bringing in bounties to me so I can send them back of course.” You couldn’t be certain there weren’t railroad sympathizers amongst your settlements and honestly until recently you wouldn’t have cared. You might have to visit your settlements just in case. “So what are the current stats on signals?”
“We captured six more today and four more signals vanished. Twenty signals remain, ten of which seem to be on the move in the direction of sanctuary hills but probably a few days travel out still. We’ve deployed synth commandos to tail these from a distance in case they’re attacked or diverge their course for too long.”
“In which case we’ll be the one raiding?” You add dryly.
“Recovering stolen property, yes.”
You ‘mmm-hmm’ dryly. “The four signals that disappeared, where were they last located.” You ask curiously and examine the sectors. You pondered the four squares between these points. “I doubt they’ll know that we can ping locations. If they are responsible for the large batch of missing signals then they’ll probably try and house the well behaved ones with sympathizers until they can arrange transportation.”
“So the remainder will be the smarties that they’re keeping together since they wont want to turn off supporters.” He adds with a smirk having located a portion of the logs most interesting. “Look like they wanted Amari to meet them and would you look at that…” He adds gesturing to the map and a point in the four squares. “Right in the triangulation.”
“If we assume they have many fluffies, they’ll probably have a few people on hand to maintain the site. Can we afford the synth resources to set up choke points to catch anyone that might try and escape if we breach?” You add hoping to smother this cell in its infancy.
“Aggressive today, aren’t we? I’d be on edge too if I had a battalion on standby and never called them in.” He laughed a bit darkly. “Im sure we can manage. A55-H0 and E88-FL0 haven’t been reassigned yet if you’re willing to go tomorrow.” He added pushing somewhat.
“…Yeah, I can do that. We’ll acquire Amari on the pretext that we ‘followed her’ there. After she arrives, we’ll wait a bit before deploying the Synths to blockade the area and sweep for stragglers. Me and the coursers will Breach the school and push them into the vault where we’ll just have to perform cleanup after since their backs will be to the wall. Prepare a jamming team so they cant radio for help. Im going to get some sleep.”
“I’ll just finish doing all this prep myself then~.” He adds waving you off as you’re already walking out. You roll your eyes at the man bitching for having to do his literal job.
You then head to Robotics. “Ah Director I see you made it back in one piece. I take it the mission was successful?”
“No casualties and without bloodshed. Honestly went better then I anticipated. I also recovered the device I mentioned. Sent it to advanced systems hoping they had room.”
“I must say im very excited to test your premise. Doctor Amari’s been a tad upset but I think we’ll get through to her in time. I think she understands why we’re forcing her hand and will probably help if only to improve the quality of life for the synths themselves. The alternative is rather unsettling afterall.” He had meant for the fluffies themselves but it applied to the doctor as well.
“Out of curiosity, is my project finished?” You ask with mild interest.
“I can show you the tank if you’d like.”
“Im sure I can find it if you’re busy.” You add not wanting to take up his time in the last hour before shift ends.
“Nonsense.” He adds letting someone know they’re in charge as he leads you out. You head through bio science and to the repurposed FEV labs.
“Looking much better then the last time I visited.” You add bluntly referring to when it was still working on super mutants instead of your recent infiltration.
“Im glad you approve.” The two of you banter on your way through about décor and how this or that is good for the development of the young fluffies minds. You even see a few of your returns who seem very content in their safe rooms playing with their toys and friends. “I hope you don’t mind sharing a tank.” He says and you notice your acquisition was floating in the tank with the first alicorn.
“Impressive reflexes given the lack of consciousness…” You say seeing the two seemingly hugging while suspended in the goo.
“Yes yours is reflexively responding to Omega’s subconscious actions. To be perfectly honest I thought the originals were deceased till I read the files and realized they were being kept alive in case we needed samples to revert to an earlier state if a flaw was introduced. That we couldn’t patch out.”
“Does that mean we’re keeping iterations of every patch alive somewhere else as well?” You add curiously. “If we cant patch out a version release we keep the failed versions separate as a learning tool after reverting and trying again with new patches. But yes.”
“I’d love to see that sometime.” You add casually while examining your proxy fluffy. The Courser Coat Black Fluff was still coming in so you could tell it was lean and probably much stronger then a normal fluffy. You preferred natural colors so you’d gone with Mono Black over white due to a coin flip. Fitting for a courser build. “Did the integration of my DNA in lieu of shauns work?”
“It took a few tries but thankfully you seemed to have protected yourself from the ravages of radiation well. Out of curiosity though, was there a reason you didn’t want Fathers DNA in this fluffy?”
“I would have felt weird about it. Besides, I think I’ll probably mesh better with it if it’s closer to me.”
“I see.” He added calmly.
“You destroyed the remaining sample and the failed tries I take it?”
“As requested director.”
“Thank you.” You trusted director Binet given that your pursuits aligned and he owed you. The two of you stood there for a moment appreciating your creations.
The floating pair rotated in the mixture revealing things. “I must say, im a little disappointed it’s not closer to the original being part horse. But considering how low to the ground it is that’s probably a good thing.” You add until you remember a majority of Excalibur was probably sheathed.
Director Binet gave a slight scoff at Johnsons Brag about himself as he pushed himself away to head to the exit but also laughed slightly; a bit more curious if certain rumors about Long were true. Not that he was a swinger or anything, he liked his relationships and encounters monogamous.
At least he thought so…
Perhaps he’d see if Eve was interested in spicing things up. The director seemed like an open minded and trustworthy person and honestly you could do worse for a lab partner to experiment with. He clapped his cheeks on both sides to calm himself before exiting back into bio science.
You went back through the labs to go and spend the remainder of time till the end of the shift with the fluffies you’d sent back to see how they were settling in. Perhaps more to confirm that sending them back to the institute was actually the right thing to do… With your conscience satisfied you went to your quarters and hung up a request for cleaning for your power armors interior before heading inside to take a shower and go to bed.