Chapter 21: Continuation

Once I was finished saying what I wanted to say Amata seemed a little teary-eyed after what I had said but nonetheless understanding since she knew it was coming while my dad and my soon-to-be father-in-law on the other hand briefly looked at each other before the overseer turned back towards me and said. "Well, you said a lot there, son... We appreciate that you place such importance on us that you are willing to go to such lengths as subjecting yourself to the plethora of dangers that exist out in the wasteland."

He paused for a moment and continued to say. "But as you said previously, we knew you weren't normal by any normal human standards, so we figured you were going to try to head out into the wastes at some point or another. I mean, you've been making things that don't have any real use down here in a vault like that new vehicle you finished recently, for instance, thus it was only a matter of time."

"So even though all of us would've liked it if you had held off on this topic for a few more years we expected it to come one day and since that is today I guess you're reaching your limits sooner than I and your father James expected you would, unfortunately." He added.

Seeing me nodding my head, he continued. "And seeing how you told us there's a threat to the vault and its many residents, I can't exactly tell you can't go, even though that's what the three of us would like to say. But given what I know about you, that would possibly sour our relationship, which is something I would like to prevent."

"So you got my go-ahead, Harold. Just don't go and get yourself killed out there since you still need to marry my daughter and make me a few grandkids once the two of you tie the knot, ha ha." Amata's dad, the overseer, said lastly, trying to lighten the conversation a bit.

"DAD!" Amata yelled out loudly, turning bright red with her previous downcast mood nowhere to be seen.

*Ha ha ha*

After both of our dads were done, having a laugh at our expense, though mainly Amata's, the overseer handed the reins of the conversation over to my dad.

"As for your visions, son, we don't really doubt your visions given the various abilities you've displayed over the years, So if you think there's danger coming, then I'm inclined to believe you since you're not the kind to say something like this." My dad said.

"Also, before I continue, I would like to apologize to everyone here about my plans to leave the vault without telling you all. It was a mistake but I still have a very strong desire to finish the project my late wife Catherine and I were working on prior to us coming here to vault 101 with our son." He apologized in a sincere tone that everyone accepted moments later, me included.

"Apology accepted dad, but I also have some things I would like to add regarding yours and mom's project."

"Okay, fire away."

"So even if you were to get project purity up and running how would you distribute the water and how would you protect it from other hostile forces such as the Enclave who want most of the wasteland dead because of some arbitrary bullshit reason that all wastelanders are expendable mutants?"

"On top of that, project purity would be a great way of dispersing a poison or some other biological agent to kill off most of the few remaining humans we have left that have mostly all been exposed to varying degrees of radiation, which the Enclave would likely want to do."

"So please explain to me in detail, dad, how you, a man in his late forties, will be able to go up against a hostile faction like the Enclave that could stomp out the brotherhood of steel easily if they were willing to throw everything they got. And that's not even considering the other hostile groups and enemies you would face as well, like the various raider groups, super mutants, and talon company mercs?" I asked, causing him to actually think long and hard on his harebrained idea of his.

A short while later, he sighed and answered. "If I'm being honest here after thinking about it over the years and with a bit of influence from you, son, I don't think my old team and I would've really been able to control it and use it for the purposes of bringing life back to the wasteland. We would've just had a huge target painted on our backs at all times that would've eventually ended up with us being attacked by raiders or some other hostile group down the line making all the effort we would've put into the project for naught."

"Phew, I'm glad some of my qualities started to rub off on you, dad. But as you said, I also didn't see any reasonable way of how it could possibly work out in the end unless you had the power and force required to control and protect it from others. Hence why I'm trying to persuade you not to run back out into the wasteland to get yourself killed for nothing."

"I also doubt mom would've wanted you to continue the project if it was not going to help anyone other than those that would use it to take advantage of others and spread more suffering." I responded, which got another sigh out of my old man before he nodded his head in a depressed state.

"Fortunately for you, dad, all might not be lost with project purity. Let me just deal with the Enclave first before we start worrying about fixing the wasteland." I added, improving his mood some.

"Going back to me, I don't really plan on leaving the vault forever. I will just be spending the majority of my time out in the wasteland getting things set up so I can take care of the Enclave in one fell swoop and prevent them from causing any irreversible harm to anyone here and the general wasteland populace at large."

"And this brings me to my second reason why I want to head out into the wasteland. When I've dealt with the Enclave and I think things are somewhat safe, I would like to try my hand at bringing this country back from the ashes. Whether that be as the former United States of America or as an entirely new country or entity altogether. The former did have its fair share of issues, such as the constant corruption it faced with politicians. Thus, it may be better to forgo the latter to try to ensure that it doesn't occur again." I said, while going into a few other details regarding it seconds later.

"And I have one last thing to add. I've taken the liberty of creating a ground-penetrating encrypted radio so I can talk with everyone here daily. Also, the encryption will change weekly to keep our conversation safe and secure because you never know who's listening." I said lastly as everyone paused for several seconds in thought.

Now that I covered everything that needed to be discussed in its entirety, for the most part, the overseer took control of the conversation and said. "Those are some lofty goals there, son, but you very well may be the one to accomplish them one day and restore civilization to its previous state, if not better. That aside, you got permission to come and go as you please as the overseer of this vault. Just make sure you stay in regular contact with us, for Amata's sake, at the very least."

"Oh, and one more thing, you must come back and make it official with my little Amata when you are the age of 18. I won't be taking no for an answer." He added lastly with a grin, riling up his daughter for the second time who now had a bright red face facing down towards the table.

Everyone got a laugh out of it except Amata, but she was secretly smiling with her head down, thus I knew she wasn't averse to it. After I agreed to his terms, we discussed a number of nitty-gritty details regarding my plans and the information I learned of in my visions. Which was, in reality, just a plethora of information I learned from my many thousands of hours spent playing Fallout and exploring the wiki.

Following that, the bunch of us discussed a few other things regarding my and Amata's future before we wrapped things up finally and everyone headed out to do whatever they had planned for the day. Which for me was spending the rest of the day relaxing with Amata accompanying me. That whole conversation was tiring, thus we could use a break, Amata included.

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There will be a few more chapters released this week.

If you want something else to read, that's similar to this, check out my other webnovel Wasteland Conqueror. It has a lot more chapters released.