Botanophobia

In the morning the next day, Afton was eating some rations while some dull jazz tones played in the background, courtesy of Jefferson. His thoughts were still on the cryogenically frozen pre-war samples. He was tempted to ask Alfred to turn Austin's personality off, but knew that'd reduce the research stations effectiveness by 50%.

This wasn't because removing the personality effected the hardware, no, it was like removing the software translating the information from the hardware. Afton while disturbed, could still handle the constant innuendo and sexually suggestive behaviour for now. If keeping it gave Austin higher effectiveness at his duties, then let him be a creep.

Of course, Afton had other duties today... Dealing with Doctor Mobius being the main one. Yesterday they'd discovered the override sequence to gain access to the forbidden zone... dome. All that as left now was for Afton to head over there, put a bullet through Mobius brain, while retrieving his own.

Afton cracks his back and rolls his shoulders as he prepares himself. He stops by the Think Tank to collect the override key that Klein had thankfully worked overtime on.

With that all said and done, Afton headed north towards the forbidden zone, the treacherous region looking incredibly ominous in the distance. Already, Afton could see large red crystals protruding from the ground, like giant rubies.

The walk towards the ruby-encrusted canyon doesn't take all the long, the only real obstacles being the few Lobotomites he ran into. They were easily dispatched, though, he did also encounter a group of Cyberdogs.

Fortunately, Dr. Borous changing his designation from 'Commie' to 'Post-war Amewrican' seems to have relieved him of their ire. In fact, they were quite happy to be pet by him, but didn't stick around long before continuing to patrol the crater.

Afton reached the outskirts of the canyon, spotting some steps leading to a raised position. Afton elects to head up there as opposed to walking through the dark, claustrophobic ground-level pathways.

Once he's up there he spots a building, on the map it reads 'Signal Hills Transmitter', whatever that is. Inside didn't really have all that much in it, hidden on the roof however were a few articles of interest...

Afton found some sort of campsite? on the roof... Along with a weapon he hadn't seen before, and what seemed to be a mod for it. He ignored them for now and picked up a torn piece of paper, one that hadn't been blown away due to the weapon resting on it.

It read :

"Set up camp here after Yangtze attack. Too exposed here. Transmitter's vulnerable, hacked it, set up remote link so can access it any time. Need to find spot closer to north train tunnel with clear broadcast LOS to here. Canyons are too dangerous, can't go back to Yangtze - there is that weather station northwest that drew that Courier here, but going there sounds like trouble. For now, going to scout the Waste Disposal Site, then around the perimeter of that Securitron Plant, see if I can find a more defensible position."

That sounded an awful lot like Elijah, especially with what he knew had already occurred from Christine and the unknown man's perspective, along with Klein. Though, the thing that pushed his theory over the edge was the weapon...

[Elijah's advanced LAER]

Strength req : 4

DMG : 65

Crit dmg : 15

Crit mult : 1.5x

AP : 32

Weight : 4

Value : 12000

Yeah, if it wasn't obvious enough, it even had Elijah's name plastered over it via his inventory. The weapon itself looked like some sort of cartoony-depiction of a laser rifle, though its damage certainly made up for its rather stupid looks.

It even had a mod next to it, one that'd convert it from a laser rifle into a sort of shotgun, the [Prismatic Lens] mod boosting damage by 30% while splitting the single beam into three. Afton didn't waste time and immediately installed the mod, checking the weapons stats afterwards.

[Elijah's advanced LAER (Prismatic Lens)]

Strength req : 4

DMG : 84.5

Crit dmg : 15

Crit mult : 1.5x

AP : 32

Weight : 4

Value : 15000

Yeah, with its damaged boosted by [Uncivilized Weapon, it's damage hit 169, an insane number dwarfing the Anti-Material rifles (without the addition of headshots). Of course, it would only be useful close range due to the mod converting it into a shotgun.

Elijah certainly knew his stuff... And by the note, he apparently had other hidden bases scattered around the crater. Afton was unconsciously salivating at the thought of more weapons like this lying around the place.

Of course, the LAER came with a few negatives... It's low crit damage, high AP cost, and fragility would've made it difficult for anyone else to use... But not Afton, his luck wasn't suited to crit weapons, he almost never used VATS to shoot, and the fragility was offset by [Mechanicus].

He put some Micorfusion cells into the weapon and hefted it, wanting to test it out... He looks over the roof towards the north, and pales slightly at what he sees... Bright. Green. Plants. Something that you are unlikely to come across within the wasteland... With one exception. Vault 22.

He was hoping this wouldn't be the case, but judging by the Spore Plants already attempting to shoot globules of acid at him from afar, it clearly wasn't just his imagination.

Afton took cover and pondered whether or not it was worth trying to kill Mobius, if he had to head through fungus infested territory... He briefly wondered why the fungus hadn't spread further, but realised it must have something to do with the 'serum' Dala had used to stop the fungus from taking over his entire body.

He suddenly frowned when he noticed himself rapidly breathing as if he were hyperventilating... Placing a hand on his chest, he realised just how fast his heart was beating. Was he... Afraid?... He was scared of many things, dying (permanently), losing friends and family, powerlessness... But now something had apparently topped that list... Plants...