I returned to the living space free of bandages, covered in grease and sooth and followed by a few of my adorable mechanical children. They sang to me in their adorable little voices consisting of dings and beeps, telling me how they wanted to build and explore. How much they loved me and of their desire to help me.
It warmed my heart. I had lost so so much, but I had my kids. They wouldn't leave me; they couldn't be taken from me. Not permanently anyway. Their existence was fiat-backed. I had a family of my own that I wouldn't lose to stray explosives or sickness, no bullets would take them. Time would find no purchase upon their eternal frames. They would be with me forever and I loved them for it.
I absentmindedly hugged the prime dingbot to my chest and made my way to the kitchen. She was so adorable, looking like a lunchbox-sized mechanical crab. She liked to perch on my shoulder and nuzzle me, adorable. I put my dishes in the dishwasher and started it.
"Come along children, we are going to check on momma's friends. The good doctor should be finished by now."
The dings, beeps and whistles I got in response lifted my spirits. I too, began to whistle and walked to the guest bedroom where I knocked on the doorframe, my children hiding from view behind me. Primey, my former Pip-Boy and the eldest of my children hid beneath my jacket.
"Can I come in? I have some things to show you and many things to explain. Chief among them this pocket dimension we are currently residing in. So, if you are both ready for a long discussion, I would like to get this out of the way. Otherwise, I will keep pushing it away."
They both nodded and I made my way in, rematerializing out the new wheelchair I had made for Sunny. Cheyenne growled at it as it appeared in the room. This caused me to giggle a little bit. She was such a cute dog, and so loyal too. I sat down on the wing chair and turned it around to the two.
"Alright, first things first. Meet my brood of adorable little psychically linked mechanical children. You will be seeing them everywhere so I thought it'd be good to introduce you to them. Now don't be afraid of them, they may look strange but they are very cheerful and kind. And they are my children considering that they are born from my spark. Children do come in. Primey you can come out now. Mommy's friends aren't going to hurt you. Come out. Don't be shy."
The good doctor and Sunny looked rather perplexed as the gaggle of my children streamed into the room, dinging and beeping.
"Alice? What are they? I haven't seen bots like that before. Heck none of them look alike. You called them your children, so what exactly are they?"
Sunny asked, clearly confused by my adorable little children. Meanwhile, Cheyenne backed away from them and took up a guard position near her owner. She clearly didn't like the fact that there were so many new faces and she wasn't happy about the situation at all. Her tail was between her legs and she was growling. Sunny noticed it and gently scratched her head to calm her down. Meanwhile, I mentally told my children to stay a good distance away from Cheyenne. We didn't want nor need an accident so best to avoid spooking her when she was already scared.
Doctor Mitchell on the other hand just observed me and my children, not showing much of a reaction to them. Instead, he was just sipping the coffee he had somehow gotten himself from my kitchen. I was glad that he was getting used to my home so quickly. That old man was resilient and I was glad for it.
"They are dingbots Sunny, they are linked to me and my mind. They help me build, repair and scrap things. I got them from the Celestial Forge. It's the thing that gave me this pocket dimension and allows us to be save from the raiders. It also is what makes sure we have food, water, power and the other resources we could need. Now from the beginning, I am not here by choice. I was in my family's workshop repairing my motorcycle so I could go to work more easily when a portal opened to a world, I thought to be fiction. Nothing more than a story. However, something horrible tried to grab me from the other side. The Simurgh an Endbringer, a creature that is in essence a mobile apocalypse. Capable of wiping out or mind-controlling a small nation in a matter of minutes. She turned her entire power against me, hoping to gain full control of my mind for her dark plans. Why I know not but if she had succeeded, I would be nothing more than a puppet by now. Probably cheerfully murdering a child or something. However, seeing as we are currently talking to each other you can guess that she did not succeed. Something else did interfere. The Celestial Forge is something much more powerful than a mere Endbringer. It too was thought of as a mere work of fiction, something thought up as a way for a completely normal person to become disgustingly powerful. You get random powers from all over the omniverse. Any story you have ever heard of, any book, any movie or game though I don't expect you to know what the last of those exist somewhere out there in the omniverse. Potentially multiple times with minor differences. And the forge contains all the powers of those stories and universes. It doles them out to people it thinks are worthy of being a forger. A forger will in time become something far above a god. Capable of shattering and building entire universes at will with nought but a thought. I somehow qualified for being a forger and the forge took offence to the Simurgh trying to suborn me as her slave. It interfered and whisked me away to a world I knew from a video game I played a lot in my younger years. Fallout: New Vegas."
"That would be our world, wouldn't it? You hinted at it already but you seem to know some things about this world and they don't seem too good judging by how nervous you were when you talked about it. So, tell me, little miss, did you already know about this world?"
Doctor Mitchell asked after finishing his coffee. Meanwhile Sunny was desperately petting Cheyenne in an attempt to calm her nerves. She didn't handle the revelation nearly as well as the good doctor did. In fact, she was freaking out a little.
"Yes, your world was known to mine though we didn't think you existed. We thought you were just a story. Something to be experienced from the safety of one's home. I know this must sound confusing, but heck it confuses me that I am here. I didn't think something like this was possible but here we are. Goodsprings was destroyed because the courier messed up something fierce and said courier, the hero to be, the one who would have saved you from the horrors of Caesar's Legion and the many many other currently brewing terrors of the New Vegas wasteland dead at the beginning of his journey. Thus, leaving the problems of the big M.T, Sierra Madre and so many more for me to deal with. And me, having my memories messed up, my race changed from human to magma slime a mere few hours ago by a new gift of the forge and having lost all that I knew and loved."
I held up my right arm as a demonstration. The good doctor immediately noticed the absence of the bandages as well as the new unblemished flesh. I didn't stop there, I shifted it from my human form into a massive burning hammer made from glowing magma. I then began to cycle through many different forms of weapons before shifting the rest of my body into a blob, a blob with spider legs and finally back into myself. This action caused the good doctor to drop the coffee cup he was holding, shattering it on the floor and spreading the shards across the floor.
Two of my adorable children rushed forward and grabbed the shards of the floor before rushing off to the workshop to fix the cup. As they did so they dinged and beeped, fighting among each other over the pieces of the cup. I giggled and picked both of them up with a pseudopod, bringing them up to my face so I could reprimand them.
"Now now, don't fight you two. Mommy doesn't like it when you do that. You can repair the cup together. After all, there are enough shards for the both of you, no?"
They looked at each other, the amount of broken cup pieces and finally me. Their little eyes drooped before they dinged in agreement and shook hands. I put them down and left them to their devices. The entire exchange was observed by my guests: The good doctor seemed to put the dingbots into the category of children and kept a wary eye on them, similar to what old people did to very young children around dangerous objects. He clearly wasn't too sure what he should think about them but he wasn't openly hostile to them. Cheyenne flat-out didn't like them at all and growled at any of them that dared come close to her. Sunny on the other hand had picked up one of my children and was examining her. I knew that that dingbot was female just by looking at her. Sunny was intrigued by my child and my daughter didn't seem to mind being picked up by her. This particular dingbot had a body that was made from what at one point was what I would assume to be a radio. She beeped in joy when Sunny tried tickling her. Good, she was no longer panicking. I wasn't too sure about the fragility of her mind considering the things she went through and I was unwilling to test if she could handle me explaining in detail what an Endbringer was. I would tell the good doctor later. I quickly had one of my many children rush to the office and write down a short message to the doctor, explaining to him that I would tell him about the Endbringers later but that it would be best for Sunny's mind if she wasn't burdened with the knowledge of such horrors. My dutiful little son delivered the message to the good doctor a mere minute later. He was a bit confused when a small dingbot the size of an Altoids tin crawled up his leg but after reading the note my child dispensed from his belly he nodded grimly. After all, one did not react lightly to the mention of something worse than Dunwich.
"So going from here I have several suggestions. First, I would formally like to ask for permission to level and rebuild Goodsprings into a bastion. Its current state is not nearly up to snuff. Heck, a rogue deathclaw could overrun the place. That isn't going to cut it. I have the resources and the manpower to rebuild the place in short order. My body can become extremely acidic or hot like magma. My children will scour the two for anything of value after I flood it with gas from an elevated position, then I would like to use my body's special qualities to burn it to the ground. Thus, destroying the gas and clearing it of corpses and debris we can't use for construction. After that, I would deploy pre-built fabrication robots. They would begin by digging a large moat that we would fill with spikes. After that would be a massive wall encapsulating the settlement, thus providing us with at least some form of defence. While my children will be doing that, I would like to take an excursion to the salt flats for the cars strewn around there. Specifically, the fusion reactors. It does not matter how damaged they are so long as some part of the assembly is still there, I will be able to rebuild it from scrap."
Sunny nodded rapidly already on board with the idea of getting rid of anything that would remind her of the horrifying ordeal she went through. Meanwhile, the good doctor didn't look convinced.
"And what would be your goal for such an excursion? I am not fully against this but I will need to know more about this. The salt flats aren't a nice place and I will need a good reason to let you go there on your own. No matter how durable your body may be. You could still be overwhelmed and I don't want you to go and get yourself into a hairy situation just because you wanted a car wreck or something equally silly. That place is full of fire ants and they are extremely dangerous. No, I will need a good reason to let you go ahead with this plan of yours. Though I have no problem with you levelling the town village. It is just a wreck now and I don't like to look at it as it is. It hurts to see your home going up in flames. So, you can total the ruins and rebuild the place. But you are not touching the cemetery. The dead deserve their rest."
I could agree with that, having proper reasons as to why I wanted to.
"The goal is to get a working fusion reactor up and running for our power needs for now. We will not be using such a disgusting power source long term since it will be dangerous to all of us long term but it will nevertheless be a good intermediate power source until such a time as I have the time to assemble a proper reactor. I would then begin with the building of a proper farm encapsulated below massive panels of lead-infused transparent metal. There we will farm radiation-free crops, thus giving us a valuable export. Next, I will have the Goodsprings source encapsulated and properly treated, not like the Brotherhood of Steel does but actual proper treatment, not some half-assed potentially infected water that may or may not kill you if you have some deviation from whatever the virus that may be in the bottle considers standard human genetics. No, it will go through osmosis, multiple layers of filters, distillation, radiation removal via moss, decontamination from any and all viruses and other pathogens as well as the removal of heavy metals and finally mineral enrichment before distribution. We will use this water for trading, farming and of course our own usage. Our living quarters will be housed in a heavily fortified and shielded fortress at the centre of the defensive structure. After that we will slowly begin to expand outwards by seeding the wasteland with a special kind of radiation-devouring moss, followed by genetically engineered seeds for shrubbery that can subsist on low levels of water. Their presence will begin to slowly change the biosphere of the surrounding region of the wasteland, making it more hospitable. After about 6-8 months of growth, the moss will die back to minor growth and will only grow back to prominence in the presence of high levels of radiation. The spores of the moss, themselves not harmful, will spread with the harsh winds of the Mojave. As such the moss will seed itself across New Vegas within about 1 to 5 years should we not interfere and help the spread."
He smirked at me and I was not able to understand why. Sunny too began to giggle; I didn't get it.
"Alright, what is so funny you two? What did I say that makes you smirk like that? I know I didn't make any jokes."
I huffed and crossed my arms below my chest. Sunny giggled some more and hugged my daughter, seemingly having grown attached to the little one. Doctor Mitchell smiled good-naturedly and explained their joke to me.
"So, you are building a G.E.C.K?"
I heard what he had said, processed it and finally began to swear. It was in essence what I was doing yes. However, I would not be using technology that was prone to kill the user. No, instead I would be pulling on the knowledge from metal artisan. The knowledge I got from that world went up to spaceships and planetary terraforming. As such radiation scrubbing was a trivial matter now that I had a proper workforce. No, I wasn't building something as disgustingly plebeian as a G.E.C.K that thing while working was a disgrace to proper terraforming. No, I would go a far different route. Atmospheric rebalancing via genetically engineered moss would work just fine. I already had some of the stuff growing in Petri dishes in the workshop. Ah, the joys of having such helpful children as well as an endless number of pseudopods. It made large projects easier. Even as we spoke some of my beloved children were creating toxic gases capable of annihilating all non-magmatic life, they reached by breaking down their carbon-based structural bonds. I wouldn't be using such a weapon against people but against a plague such as geckos and rad-scorpions? Those were affronts against the motive force. Terrors made by man's folly and greed. And as such It fell to me to clean up such disgraces. I had no qualms about using chemical weapons against them. It would be quicker than hunting them down. Despite how queasy I was about the use of chemical weapons I would use them against creatures if needed. Plagues such as scorch beasts if they still existed would need to be annihilated with extreme measures to ensure survival.
The other things my darlings where building were the machines needed for the terraforming, giant blocks of ferrocrete that would just need to be slotted into each other so that we could rapidly build the walls as soon as the foundations were built, truly massive amounts of pipes, ammunition, automatic gun turrets, radar and lidar dishes because of the aliens, raiders and other problems that could become a problem. A good old Iron Dome was being built up in case the Great Divide became active again. Massive long-range artillery was being constructed and prepared for installation. Construction drones were being built in the thousands, and thought they would be far stupider than my dingbots despite being made from better materials they were expendable. I would not miss them should they be destroyed. I would not risk my children in the harsh expanse that was the wasteland. Oh no, they would stay at home where they were safe.
And finally, they were building up a massive army of tanks and planes all automated and ready to bring death to any chosen target if the need arose. I truly hoped I didn't need to start conquering people and they would either leave us alone or join peacefully but there were a few things that made me believe otherwise. First, the fact that this was the wasteland and Cook-Cook existed, thus other such monsters would too. Second, humans would inevitably be human and start wars no matter how good they had it.
"No, I am building something far superior. The G.E.C.K is a disgrace to terraforming. So, doctor will you be on board with me going into the salt flats to look for the things we need? Oh, and don't worry about me going out there without any proper weapons or armour. No no, I learned my lesson after the gecko. My children are currently building the expedition vehicle. It is something to behold you will like it, I'm sure. After all, it has been so long since the wasteland saw a proper armoured vehicle of war take to the field. And it won't be one of your strange tanks either. I will introduce the wasteland to the power of the M1 Abrams, the greatest pride of the United States of America of my homeworld when it comes to tanks. It is a massive machine of war capable of tearing apart a deathclaw at a range of up to 6 kilometres. The shells can be either regular kinetic shells or special high explosive rounds that have reduced range but do more damage than your average mini-nuke. Its armour has a reactive plating meaning that if the hit is sufficient enough to warrant danger to the occupants a secondary armour that was layered on top will explode off thus redirecting the projectile away from the tank and its occupants. With a weight of over seventy tons of metal, it will simply crush any fire ants that dare cross my path. Its massive range will allow me to pick off any raiders before they know what hit them and even a direct hit with a mini-nuke should not be enough to put that monster of American engineering down for good. This was of course before I added anti-radiation shielding. It will come equipped with an EPP, an Environmental Protection Pack. This technology grants immunity to radiation, temperature, toxins and provides air recycling. As such nothing much will be getting through the armour. And in the case that something should. It will not find purchase on me since I will simply turn into my slime form, thus becoming liquid death to whatever was stupid enough to try."
I smirked at the looks they gave me. It was surprisingly satisfying to describe the power of superior firepower. Was this why villains monologued to their victims? I could see the appeal even if it was a certifiably stupid thing to do. If you were going to kill someone, why give them a chance? Thus, the tank. Best to be over geared. This was Fallout after all and I was fully expecting to run into the Brotherhood or a pack of deathclaws. Best to be ready with superior firepower in case of the deathclaws and an armoured shell to argue from in case of the tech kleptomaniacs. Otherwise, they would try to steal or destroy my children and if they did that, I would not be reasonable anymore. After all, a mother has to protect her children, and kidnappers definitely count.
Sunny was clearly not getting half of the things I had described that was alright. She was still injured and I was beginning to suspect that she was far more traumatised than she showed. Trying to put on a brave face and keep it together so she looked strong for me and her father. I did not like it; she should allow herself to grieve but I suppose I had no room to talk when it came to masking my feelings. That thought got me to realise that I had been suppressing my emotions again. This was not healthy but I needed to push on. There were Eldritch gods out there in the wastes and they were watching. I needed to prepare for whatever chaos-tainted horror they would no doubt bring upon me and my little fortress to be. As such rapid expansion of defensive structures and a proper foothold were a must. Something like warded defences would be nice but sadly I currently had no access to any form of magical protection and would no doubt have to deal with some Eldritch incursion. They should however be able to be repelled by sufficient firepower and if there was one thing that I did not lack it was firepower. Funnily enough, the warehouse considered anything up to nuclear weapons as low tier and gladly replicated the ammunition. Oh, it hadn't replicated anything yet but I knew it would. As such I would soon have an infinite supply of ammunition for most of my vehicles and planes.
As I was once again pondering things, I noticed the way the doctor looked at me.
"Little Lady you are one scary girl you know that right? By atom, what you are describing is one scary tank and you are saying those little guys are building one of those right now? How long will that take them? Considering their size and what you described it should take them months to build that."
I began to giggle and scratched Primey below her left actuator claw, right where she loved it so much. My daughter dinged in approval of my attention and leaned into my hand.
"One of them? Oh no they have already built 30. My children are very fast and those ten you see here aren't all of them. There are 200 in total and each of them is as fast as 10 men, as smart as a 12-year-old and fuelled with a mischief only seen in bored fae. They build whatever I imagine and some things I don't. As we speak, they are assembling building materials and creating a mechanised army as well as all the materials needed to build a massive fortress on the ruins of Goodsprings after all we have endless materials that refresh each day as such, I see no reason not to go full over preparation. I do hope that I will never need to unleash my robotic army but if the worst happens and the legion or Omnissiah help us the scorched plague reaches us I will be ready. There are things out there in the wastes, old gods and half-dead monsters older than the human race. I fully expect them to try and gain control of me and thus the forge by proxy. They will fail but they will try because the greed of an elder god is far greater than the greed of a human. So are their powers and limitations, if they could act with impunity, I wouldn't even be talking to you. They would have taken control of my mind the second I set foot in the world or tried to at least, not that they would have gotten anywhere. The forge is possessive of me and it doesn't like to share, it is also much more powerful. But to answer your question, yes, I am aware that this would seem scary to some people. Now then, my children just finished with the assembly of the tank as well as the door we will need to deploy on the outside because we won't be able to get a tank out the door of your old trailer doctor. Would you like to join me for the annihilation of the gecko infestation plaguing the settlement's ruins?"
It took us some time but we managed to get Sunny into the new wheelchair along with her IVs which we attached to an IV holder I had built for it. After that, we made our way through the living space and into the warehouse. What had once been empty space and great big halls was now rows upon rows of tanks and planes. F-22 Raptors lined the floors flanked by Abrams tanks. Giant assembly robots stood at attention, prepared to begin construction of a fortress ready for any faction to come and try. Both my guests gawked at my children's creations. How could they not? Mere days ago, the biggest robots they had seen would have had to have been a securitron, and now they stood among machines that must seem like dreams to them. If I had grown up in a wasteland like they, had I would be the same. It wasn't any surprise to me that they were a little perplexed by the sheer amount that my adorable little children had built in such a short amount of time.
"As you can see, I am quite prepared for any form of attack that could be directed against us. The sheer number of weapons that I have at the ready should be enough to defend us, no?"
Sunny nodded vigorously, impressed by the number of weapons on display.
"Yeah, that's definitely enough to keep us safe. What are you trying to fight? An army of deathclaws? That many of those things and you could take over the strip. Wait a minute you aren't going to try and take over the strip, right?"
She asked me with a little bit of worry in her voice. I decided that brutal honesty was going to be the best way forward.
"It was my last plan if our good doctor wasn't able to fix what was ailing you. I would have stolen the technology keeping Mr House alive and stuffed you into the tube that kept him alive until I found a cure. But since he was able to treat your ailments, I won't have to conquer the strip by military force."
And I was glad about that too. I didn't plan on going to war with the biggest "peaceful" faction of New Vegas for as long as it would be possible. After all, optics were a thing. And it would look very bad indeed if I just took control of the strip. Her being in the process of getting better was a stone off my back.
"Alright children gather the door parts and get ready to follow me into the wasteland. I will go first and make sure that there are no dangers on the other side of the door. Then when I open the door again you bring out the mortars and the door assembly."
My children gave me an affirmative choir of dings and beeps and I stepped out of the door and into the wasteland. I did not find any surprises on the other side of the door, no ambush or traps waiting to ensnare me or my children. Just Dusty ground and a broken town beneath. That was good, no ambushes meant no Eldritch interference as of now. Perhaps I was still unnoticed, that would be great. If that was the case, I would be making the most of it.
I opened the door again and my children swarmed out, we ascended the slopes of the nearby hill and began to set up our mortars as well as one of the many prefabricated doors that had been produced for this endeavour. I opened said door and allowed the good doctor as well as Sunny and Cheyenne out. My children had set up the mortars and finished the preparations, it was time.
"We gather here today to begin the cleansing of the fallen settlement of Goodsprings. May it rise from the ashes of destruction as something more. If either of you have something you wish to say before we begin, now is the time."
I said as I looked down over the ridge and onto the settlement below. It was ravaged by destruction and by now there were even rad-scorpions nesting in the ruins. It did longer look like a small village but was closer to a horror show. The wasteland had claimed the place remarkably quickly.
Doctor Mitchell stepped forward to the edge as well and looked down with sorrow.
"I am so sorry, old friends. I wasn't there when the Raiders came. This would never have happened with me present. Please forgive me. I failed you."
He then put his old calloused hand on my shoulder and spoke, great sorrow evident in his voice.
"Do what needs to be done."
I nodded and seconds later the sound of the mortars rang out across the Mojave. Shattering the tranquil silence. I wouldn't be surprised if they heard that in the Nellis Air Force base. The way the canyon was formed would cause sound to bounce off the walls and be amplified before booming out across the empty salt flats.
Great clouds of toxic gas soon filled the tiny Valley and the screams of the dying creatures would go on to haunt my nightmares. But I did not look away or make any move to stop the firing. I had ordered the creation of this weapon. I had to see and understand how it worked. Else I forgot just how dangerous it was. Next to me Sunny whimpered and looked away. She had come willingly but we really shouldn't have allowed her to see this. The good doctor had a grim expression on his face.
"This is the level of war your world employed? I can see how it would have traumatised you the way it did. And don't try to deny it. I can see the PTSD you carry. I am a doctor. I don't judge you for it. Far from it. After having seen this. I am surprised you kept going."
I shrugged my shoulders and watched as the gas broke down into mist as planned, no way I would be leaving behind any samples of something as deadly as this. This gas would break down about 10 minutes after being primed. It could not be stored in its inert form either, it had to be field-assembled. That way no one would replicate this horror.
"Someone had to. Destruction is easy. Healing is much harder. But you probably know this better than I do, of that I'm certain. Now the gas should have broken down into harmless water vapour. Children go and scrap the place. You can take apart the houses but not their contents. Those are to be placed in the warehouse so Sunny and the good Doctor Mitchell can look over them to see if some of them have sentimental value to them. Other than that, you can go have fun little ones. But remember if you see something dangerous you return to Mommy and tell her."
Primey beeped and dinged at me from my shoulder, protesting that her siblings would be perfectly fine. But I wouldn't budge on this. Just because they were immoral didn't mean that they were allowed to be stupid.
"No, telling me about it via our link isn't enough. You go away from the dangerous thing. I don't want you to get hurt"
They dinged and beeped but managed to get them to follow my conditions in the end. I opened the door for my guests and they retreated back to the forge for now. After that, I turned into my slime form and slid down the hillside. After reaching the bottom I constructed the giant warehouse door that I had my children prepare for this occasion. It would allow them easy access to the settlement. After the shutter door was opened, they rushed out and began to tear the town apart.
Broken buildings were razed and torn down before getting broken up into components and carried off through the warehouse door. Trash was analysed for parts and if found usable, broken down and carried away, any intact or obviously well cared for objects were catalogued and carried away for storage. This process continued for about an hour before the entire settlement was stripped bare leaving only unusable rubble and corpse slurry behind. It was time. I changed the shape of my body into a wave of magma and slowly rolled across the barren waste, sanitising it and clearing it of leftover matter. It was a disgusting process to burn away the corpse slurry and it made me feel dirty but it was necessary and one more trauma was not going to break me. You couldn't break a broken vase after all. It was already broken.
It took some time but I managed to level the place. Instead of the former semi-enclosed settlement, there was now a valley nestled in an artificial caldera. I had increased the workable area from a small village to a little town. We now had an area of roughly 1 kilometre in diameter. The action of spreading myself over such a large volume of space left me mentally and physically exhausted. It was with great effort that I stumbled back into the forge. Doctor Mitchell caught me and helped me sit down on my workbench chair where I promptly collapsed into the cushions, groaning softly at the massive migraine that had developed as a result of overexerting my body.
"You okay their little lady? You don't look so good but I don't know enough about your anatomy to judge what is wrong."
He asked, worried about my health.
"Unnngh overexerted my body. Got a migraine. Children coffee please oh and send out the building robots."
I groaned as I tried to hide from the light. One of my beautiful children beeped very softy and handed me an espresso. Ah, how I loved them. Primey began to massage my shoulder blades in hopes of getting me some alleviation from the pain. Such a sweetie.
Meanwhile, the building robots, gigantic steampunk-looking iron giant-like walkers left through the warehouse door carrying great segments of ferrocrete. They left to build the perimeter wall and would also be standing guard for now. Their steps shook the entire caldera and I cursed myself for not giving them a way to walk silently. This wasn't doing my migraine any favours.
I sighed and closed my eyes for just a little bit. A small nap should be fine. We had appropriate defences set up. Before I dozed off, I made sure to order the deployment of a few fighter jets on a scouting trip. I needed to know how bad things were out there. I cringed at the sound of their engines but they were soon out of the door and in the air. Soon we would know how bad it was out there. I looked at the vapour trail they left in the sky and dozed off.
-300 cp banked
