Chapter 251 - Stupid Scientists

After recovering from the brief fight with the Spore Rose, the duo got straight back to work. While this floor wasn't as populated with Spore Carriers as the one above, no, instead quality replaced quantity.

Everything room was covered in a thick layer of spores that concealed everything inside. Forcing them to remove it, of course this would usually be prevented by whatever mutated abomination would be living within it.​​

The potential mutations didn't seem to be restricted b anything either, as the group ran into short, incredibly fast creatures, large ones with skin-like steel, or even ones that attacked via ultra sonic sounds... Yeah, the latter one was a headache, literally.

After a couple hours of clearing the floor, a beaten, battered, and weak pair of Afton and Anja stumbled across the mainframe of the terminal systems. They could see it through the window of the room, and Afton was sure the backup of the research would be held inside.

He coughs into the crook of his shoulder as he fingers the door control for a moment, scowling when it seemed to be locked. "A-Anja, could you get this open please?" he says weakly.

She nods had opens the panel before beginning to fiddle around with its internals... Afton finds it somewhat amusing as she grimaces and pulls her hand out, revealing that a root had been inside the control and tried to grab her.

Not wasting any time, he grabs the root and tears it out. "Continue please, Anja."

A few minutes later and wallah! The door slowly slides up but gets stuck halfway, forcing them both to duck under it to get into the room... Strangely enough, this was the only room thus far that wasn't completely infested by Spores... In fact, Afton was sure not a single plant was within here...

Shaking his head he accesses the mainframe terminal and is greeted by many, many things. It contained every message ever sent across the Vault, a note every time someone accessed the system, and, all of the combined research that'd been conducted here.

He sighs and asks Anja to close the door to the room, not wishing for this temporary safe haven to be taken over. He'd probably need a few hours in the least to look through all of this.

Four hours later :

Afton grumbles to himself at the result of his search... He already knew that the floors were separated so they could work on different functions of the fungus, but it was only the fifth floor that knew the dangers of it.

The first couple of floors researched methods to increase the plant's oxygen recycling efficiency and other similar concepts. Some even tried to get it to use other chemicals entirely, which, if it had worked might just make the world suffocate if the fungus spread.

The third floor was responsible for improving food production, a noble goal that might have been able to feed millions if the subject matter wasn't an incredibly dangerous and infections fungus. The only thing they really managed to accomplish was the 'sweet substance' the plants sometimes produced that seemed to attract insects, hence the large number of mantises lingering around.

The fourth was obviously the common areas, the place where most scientists in this place actually lived. Which Afton found incredibly stupid considering the ventilation system was directly above the place where they were researching ways to improve the fungus.

But, most criminally damning was the fact the fifth floor was the only one that actually knew what they were working on. No designing to mention how truly fucked everyone would be if it escaped, and, even when it had escaped to the upper floors no one was warned of this impending threat.

The fifth floor worked on ways to control the fungus's growth, control the creatures reanimated and manipulate spore growth. Obviously all of the above were failures, and once it broke out the spores infested the ventilation system, firstly infecting the common areas and slowly moving up via the Spore Carriers who slowly succumbed to the infection.

Now, while all of this was happening, you'd think the scientists would put their heads down to find a cure, right?... FUCKING WRONG! They did nothing! Actually, it was worse than nothing! They ignored it entirely and continued trying to improve the fungus! Were they fucking stupid!

Afton mental tirade is cut off as he breaks into another coughing fit... Truly, he considered himself pretty screwed at this point, there was no research that could help him here. The only other place he could think of that could potentially hold it would be the locked cavern access... He'd check on their way out, if he lived that long.

He looks at Anja and shakes his head while disconnecting his Pipboy. Just because the research was useless to him didn't mean he wouldn't download it. Though, he definitely wouldn't be handing it to Hildern. "There's fuck all here, all the research is useless... But, judging by the logs, Keely is still alive somewhere around here, probably within the cavern the plants managed to escape into." he says, wondering why she'd venture into that place when it was clear most people who go to investigation never return.

Anja nods, "Maybe she'll know something that can help you? She's spent more time down here than anyone else." she observes, but Afton just shakes his head, "I doubt it..." he mutters.

They leave the room and shut the door behind them, continuing to explore the floor until they come across the room that seems to have had one of the walls torn apart... The thing responsible? Some roots were still growing from outside the wall, resting against the sides of the wall as if they were the ones who'd done it. If Afton knew one thing from his time here, it was that the plants KILL.