A Dirty Bomb Maker

After Afton had finally found the location of the ventilation component they started moving again... Apparently it was in the lowest floor beside some reactors in a locker. It was the backup component of the vault as the main one was still in use, obviously, he couldn't just cut through meters of reinforced steel to get at it, so he was left with only this option. If he was able to go through the steel, he could've gathered all the component from this vault alone.

So, the trio continued, shooting rats whenever they appeared and occasionally having Karl dismantle traps. The loot they found around the place was generally not worth taking, rotten food, alcohol, etc would have to be left behind. The last caches of ammo would be taken however. That wasn't all though, Afton had stumbled across a rugby ball-shaped object that had the radioactive symbol prominently pained on it.

As he was going to touch it Karl immediately slapped his hand away.

"DON'T!" he exclaimed, shocking Afton and Boone with the ferocity of his yell.

Afton gives an angry, but subdued look to Karl, the man wouldn't do something like that without reason so there was no point being mad about it. "What was that for?"

Karl shoves his finger in the direction of the object he'd found, "That. Is a nuclear bomb." he states heavily, causing the others to pale slightly.

"You serious?" Boone quietly asks, wondering if he should run and hope the vault would shield against the blast should it go off.

Kalr nods, "Yeah, they call em mini-nukes. No idea what crazy bastards keep making them, but the NCR had been finding them all over the wasteland. They investigated it to find whoever did it for obvious reasons... If they got caught by the Legion, the slaver's would literally be able to construct nuclear bombs."

"This vault didn't seem to have been scavenged by the looks of it, if this thing is here then one of the former vault-dwellers might've made it." Afton says after thinking a moment.

"Youknow, I think you might be right about that kid... Should look for the names of anyone who managed to leave and try to find them. Depending on who they are, it might be worth having 'em join us." Karl mutters after a moment of contemplation.

"And if they're an enemy, they won't even know we're coming for them. Sure, I can get on board wit that." Afton grins.

[Quest accepted : Find the mystery bomb maker]

Ignoring the notification Afton looks back down at the mini-nuke, "What should we do with this? I can think of a couple ways we could use it. All of which would be incredibly satisfying."

Karl rubs his chin, "Let me look it over for a minute... Can you check if any radiation is leaking from it with your Pip-thing?" he asks and Afton nods, holding his Pipboy over it with the Geiger counter not moving an inch.

"It doesn't seem to be damaged in any way... I'm not willing to crack it open to see if the internals are fine either... It's up to you kid, I know I'm not going to carry it around. If it goes off we're all fucked anyway."

Afton shrugs and uses his Pipboy inventory to check it,

[Mini-Nuke]

Value : 3000

...

Not much information is given apparently, but, since it'd not called "Defective Mini-Nuke", or "Damaged Mini-Nuke", he decides it's probably safe... If you take into account his [Mechanicus] Perk then he doubted it'd randomly go off while he was carrying it.

Karl and Boone cautiously watch as Afton shoves it into his backpack, "Alright, we've got another thing to do now, check any terminals for information on this 'mystery bomb maker', hopefully they're friendly, but if not I don't see a reason why we should let someone so dangerous live." he says.

The group continue to explore the place, hacking every terminal the come across but not finding much information aside from the catastrophic last "election" that occurred in this place. Apparently, one Overseer decided to make the sacrifice selection random, this caused one of the faction to stage a coup, killing most of the inhabitants.

The find the overseers office but there isn't much inside... The terminal is password protected and too difficult to hack for Afton, so they just head to the lower floor instead. Unfortunately it seemed that the final coupe had damaged some water lines, flooding the entire floor.

Afton dips his toe into the water and hears the familiar clicking of his Geiger counter. Clearly the water was irradiated, if only slightly. He sighs and looks at the others, "What now?"

Karl shrugs, "I don't suppose whatever your looking for is down there?"

Afton slowly nods, "It is... I'll have to go swimming for it, I can't really use the radiation suit as its not designed for underwater use." he mutters to himself, finally dropping his bag and dressing down into his underwear. He takes out some Rad X and gulps it down before handing the duo a Radaway, "Once I'm out, give that to me... If I don't come back in, say, two hours? Leave me behind." he states.

Truthfully, Afton wasn't all that keen to go swimming down there. But, if there was look to be had, he would have it. Without further adieu he made his way down the flooded staircase, taking a big breath of air before descending.

His vision was slightly blurry, and the lights that had previously illuminated the hallways were unsurprisingly broken, providing a rather scary black hallway for him to swim down. His Pipboy light allowing him to see somewhat, but it still wasn't a comfortable journey.