Chapter Text
Chapter 8: “Come Fly With Me” - Part 2
=============[Repconn HQ - Upper Levels]=============
Seth wheezed a bit, Boone and ED-E were fine, staring at this poor Courier who had been going non stop with little sleep for the past few days. Sure he was hardy but he was still human, Seth was now counting the numerous different ways getting cybernetic implants would improve his life. The human with the rough voice looked over the courier, “You look like shit.”
“Fuck -wheeze- you too buddy!”
“You got good news? Tell it to Jason.”
Seth broke out his canteen and started chugging, Boone having to try and stop him so he didn’t waste all his precious water. Seth groaned and walked up to Jason, “The "demons" are gone.”
“Praise the creator! And bless you, wanderer! The way is clear. I will lead my flock through the basement to the sacred site! I hope you will come find us there, wanderer! There is much to be done!” Jason excitedly said, before rushing out, followed by the Ghoul followers.
Seth stared at Boone, who shrugged as ED-E tilted himself, Seth grunted, “Fuck!”
=============[Repconn HQ - Rocket Path]=============
Seth entered the final doorway and heaved, staring as a bunch of Ghouls donned old Repconn Spacesuits before entering a hatch. Seth was naturally interested and began to step forward to inspect, only to be halted by another ghoul and Davison. Davison looked apologetic and climbed down, Seth blinked, and nearly jumped when the hand of Jason gripped his shoulder.
“I apologize wanderer, but the rocket site is too radioactive for you to survive, the Journey is one we can’t make with you. I wish you could come with us, truly, but I don’t want you dying down there.”
Seth blinked, “Really?”
Jason nodded, “Please, talk to Chris, he has more work for you before our journey.”
Seth turned to see Chris, still as grouchy looking as before and frowned before turning to Jason, “Ghouls only huh?”
Jason looked a little guilty, “I do apologize, know that I can never make it up to Chris for what we have done.”
“Really pulled the wool over his eyes huh?” Seth added, Jason walked off, leaving the Courier alone, he turned to Boone and ED-E quickly.
“Okay so… Chris can’t go down there. What do I do?”
Boone blinked, “Convince him of the truth?”
Seth turned back to Chris, adjusting some instruments for the launch, making sure the notes on the Rockets were correct. There was a determination in his eyes, he had stopped frowning at the least and was focusing on making sure the rockets worked just right. Seth admired that, so it was all the more painful knowing that breaking his heart would set him onto another path if he wasn’t careful.
“So… Chris.”
“Ah, good you’re still here. I have some jobs for you,” Chris said without even looking up.
Seth sighed, “Chris I’d love to help but I have to tell you something.”
Chris looked over, and frowned again, it was clear he was not interested, Seth took a deep breath and asked, “Chris, Why don't they let you work down on the launch pad?”
“When I joined the flock, Jason made it clear that he wanted me to supervise the repairs, not do them myself. It would be a waste of my gifts to work on just one system at a time. From up here, I've been able to supervise the entire project,” Chris responded, rolling his eyes.
“The radiation down there would kill you, Chris. Because you're human,” Seth said, calmly and evenly, Chris even seemed to consider what he was being told.
“I thought we were past all that, smoothskin. But you just can't resist the chance to mess with me. Typical human. I was human once, you know. Grew up in Vault 34, northeast of here. Nice upbringing, if you like assault rifles and target practice. But oh, you prefer machines that don't shoot people? Not so nice then. Who should maintain the Vault's reactor? Houser? Mitchell? No - make it Haversam. He likes machines!” Chris ranted, Seth nervously backed up a bit.
“Haversam won't mind getting irradiated! Haversam won't mind mutating! He's already ugly as it is! Haversam won't mind when his hair starts falling out after a few years. There's no connection, Haversam! You're neurotic!” He finished, Seth finally understanding what was going on, he could say something tactful to diffuse this.
He did not.
“You left your Vault because you were going bald?”
Chris grimaced and shouted, “Bald? You call this bald, smoothskin? I'm a monster! A monster!”
Seth started laughing, and then took a deep breath, stopped and told Chris directly; “Jason told me himself. The Great Journey is for ghouls only. You're not going.”
Chris blinked, and seemed to take several minutes to process what he had just heard before he finally said, “Oh god! You're telling me the truth, aren't you...? Oh no! How could they do this to me? For two years? My god, I've been a joke to them! Do you have any idea how easy it'd be for me to sabotage those rockets? That'd be a joke, huh? One hell of a joke!”
“Calm down now Chris,” Seth said stepping forward, hoping to stop him from doing something rash, “That'd be murder, Chris. And you're no murderer.”
“What, you think I'm too stupid to pull it off? I know enough to get their rockets working, don't I? So I can make them fail, too!” Chris argued.
Seth sighed and grumbled, Chris’s eyes were full of rage and indignation, but also pain. This was a man who felt hurt and lied to, that his entire worldview had come crashing down and what purpose he had was gone, Seth felt sympathy but the solution wasn’t revenge here. Something skipped in Seth’s brain and he blinked before continuing, this time a little more forceful, “It's not a matter of smarts. You'd never forgive yourself.”
“Like I could forgive myself for getting duped like this? They used me! And now they'll throw me away!” Chris responded.
Seth gripped Chris by the collar of his shirt and pulled him forward, Chris’s anger and indignation dropped as he realized he was now staring into the wild eyes of a wasteland courier. He was a little worried as the Courier seemed to be breathing pretty heavily, before saying, “They'd take you if they could, Chris, but you'd die. ”
The stressing of the last word made it start to sink in, as Chris realized what had happened, Seth staring at him.
Chris slowly got up and looked down at the platform, the ghouls preparing and getting the Rockets together, Jason looking over all of them… and looking hurt and sad himself.
“What will they do then? Will I even be remembered?”
“They're going to revere you as a Saint, Chris!”
Chris sighed, “So, what? You want me to accompany you on your adventures across the wasteland, is that it?”
Seth gave it some thought and admitted that while that was an option, he’d rather not. The answer came rather quickly and Seth said, “There's a little town called Novac down the road.”
Chris looked out to the ghouls, then back to Seth, he grumbled and muttered, “Life among humans again, that's what you're suggesting? I guess... I guess it's the only chance I've got. I can't believe I'm agreeing to this, but I'll give it a try. I'll get Jason and his flock on their way, and then I'll head for Novac.”
Seth nodded, and proceeded to ask for what was needed, figuring he and Boone could get this done quickly.
=============[Novac - Old Lady Gibson’s House]=============
Seth stepped into the scrapyard and looked about, Old Lady Gibson had collected a lot of junk… and dogs. Seth liked dogs but he never felt he could keep one, it was kind of hard to feed a good pet when marching through the wastes, and he always felt horrible about dogs attacking others, especially when they could get shot so easily.
Boone had split for now, saying he knew exactly where the radioactive material was, having spotted it a day or so ago outside some gecko territory. Seth was fine, it was just him and ED-E again, “Well Eddy, ready to barter for parts?”
ED-E raised his laser gun and Seth sighed, “No not yet.”
“Hi there. I'm Old Lady Gibson, or so they tell me. I've got odds and ends for sale, and I'm pretty good at fixing things, too. You might have noticed the very large building just north of here. That's HELIOS One. The NCR runs the place, so it's off-limits to prospectors,” was the first words out of her mouth, and she said them all with a friendly smile and tone that said “Let’s make a deal!”
Seth could see it in her eyes as well, Old Lady Gibson was a scrap trader and proud of it. He couldn’t help but smirk at this attitude himself, “I’m looking for parts.”
OL Gibson laughed and gestured to the scrapyard, a dog curling up under her other hand, “Take a look around, I got plenty of parts and scrap pieces, what are you looking for?”
“Rocket control parts from the Repconn facility? Got any?” Seth asked with a wry smirk across his face, she had to have them, old junk traders just seemed to somehow get their hands on the parts.
Gibson laughed, “Sure do, that’ll cost you 500 caps.”
Seth winced, he couldn’t spare that kind of cash money, ED-E raised his laser gun again and Seth just waved it down. He adjusted his coat, smoothed his hair and stepped over to Old Lady Gibson, looked her right in the eyes, and said in the smoothest tone he could, “An attractive woman like yourself all alone? Maybe you and I could work out some kind of trade…”
Gibson smirked, then a wide grin spread across her face, “I know I'm not young and pretty any more, but I appreciate the thought all the same. Here, take the parts, you flatterer,” she said handing over the thrust control modules.
Seth smiled and took them, “Danke schoen.”
As they walked off, ED-E rumbled, and seemed to pause, Seth stopped, “You okay Eddy? Buddy?”
ED-E then began to speak, “Subject E: Diagnosis complete. Begin Recording. My name is Whitley. I’m a researcher at Adams Airforce Base, until recently I was a researcher for the Duraframe Project for the combat model eyebots. Eyebot Duraframe Subject E is both the prototype and the last functional test model in this group, I was prepared to make several significant upgrades to the machines… however as the project has been cancelled and all assets are being diverted to hellfire armor… I am sending this model to the Navarro outpost. If you’re listening to this from one of our Chicago outposts, give this unit whatever repairs it needs, so it can continue to Navarro.”
In an instant, ED-E resumed normal operation and just floated there, Seth blinked, “What was that?”
ED-E tilted as if to ask, “what?”
Seth grumbled, “fuck.”
=============[Repconn - Test Facility]=============
Seth stepped over to the hatch, thrust control modules in hand, he heard footsteps, whipping around he saw Boone carrying a heavy case, “Got this.”
Seth quirked a brow, and Boone just patted the drum container, “Someone out near Gecko territory died with this a few days ago, I spotted it on one of my night watches.”
Seth nodded, “Alright, we got everything then. Let’s go help Chris, and hope that he isn’t going to try and kill everyone.”
The trio entered into the control section, and saw Chris holding a box of sugar bombs, Seth started to panic until Christ took notice, “Oh. Don’t worry, I'm just hungry.”
Seth just stared, “You… aren’t going to use the sugar to mess with the rockets?”
Chris shook his head, “No, I remember what you said. I just want to get this done and over with.”
Seth nodded and handed Chris the parts, who smiled a little and stepped over to a hatch, handing them to a ghoul popping out in an old space suit, said Ghoul smiled and proceeded to listen to the instructions Chris gave. Seth could see how Chris had gotten this job in the first place. It felt nice helping some people out, and getting the Ghouls to their new home, it felt even better to help Chris not take revenge on people who had wronged him.
Seth’s brain skipped a beat and he blinked, Chris had wanted vengeance and Jason Bright’s flock had used him for a long time, it felt very personal to him didn’t it? Why was his revenge wrong… and what made Seth’s desire to kill the tacky jacket right? The Courier pondered the question heavily, and shrugged it off with a “Well he wasn’t actually hurt and the Bright followers would take him and intended to if he didn’t die. Jacket Jackass shot me in the head”.
Yet there was still a niggling element of doubt in his mind.
An hour passed and the Flock started cheering, Jason smiled and stepped up to a microphone down in the rocket bay, Seth looked out and saw the ships meant to ferry them to the “great beyond”.
Jason was still wearing his tattered 3 piece suit, and Seth couldn’t help but be amused.
“Gather, all. May the creator guide my words and help me speak true… The almighty creator has seen fit to answer our prayers. The time has come for us to board the rockets and begin the Great Journey. Though it may seem that all humans despise us, the creator has seen fit to instruct us differently. The Journey ahead would have been impossible if not for the intercession of two human friends, one new, the other a long-abiding companion.”
Seth and Chris looked at each other, then turned back to Jason.
“To our new friend, we say thanks, and promise never to forget how he cleared from our path the demons who sought to stay our Journey. But to Chris, we owe more than thanks. Chris, you have made this Great Journey a reality. From this moment forward, you will be remembered as the Saint of the Great Journey. We shall never forget you. I ask that you forgive us, Chris, and give us your blessing, and we bestow ours upon you. Seekers, board the rockets, take your seats. The Great Journey awaits! To the promised land we go! To the Far Beyond!”
The Ghouls started boarding the rockets on masse, and Chris quietly turned around and walked out, Seth looked over, “Uh… where do you think you’re going?”
“To Novac, I got work to do if I’m gonna live among regular people. Head back up to the office, pull the switch and give ‘em a good launch.”
Seth sighed, “Fuuuuck.”
=============[Repconn - Launch Control Room]=============
Seth wheezed as he got into the launch room, Boone however was fine, and ED-E had not slowed down. Seth took a deep breath and trudged over to the controls, Boone just rolled his eyes and spotted the controls, “Seems this is what we need.”
Seth looked down at the control set, it was a simple lever system, hooked up to a large computer console of some sort. ED-E beeped at it, Seth stepped over and took a look, blinking at what he saw. Coordinates had been put in, they were pretty good but the math wasn’t… quite right. Seth wasn’t sure but he had a scientific mind so he could sort this out, make things a bit more… accurate.
It took a few adjustments, but when it was finished, Seth motioned for Boone to throw the switch.
The speakers in the control center blared as music began to play, Seth blinked as he tried to piece together what the song was, Boone just shrugged it off and ED-E beeped along to it. The three looked out the window, and saw the domed structure open, the rockets from the pad below were seen, the worn red paint still clear in the bright sunlight of the day.
The area rumbled and the first two took off with no issue, the last one limped and Seth was very worried, until its booster kicked off and it caught up with no issue. Seth breathed a sigh of relief, “Alright, next stop, kicking that checkered Asshole’s ass.”
Boone stared at the courier, “Don’t you need to ask Manny where he went?”
Seth blinked, “FUCK!”