Chapter 288 - Halo Ring?

The Y-13 harness falls to pieces and Afton throws the two axes at the remaining ones. Both hitting the enemy's in the chest and causing them to fall to the ground while spasming, the electro-magnetic effect of the weapons causes havoc upon suits mechanical insides.

Yeah, these things might be tough against anyone else, but with all his Perks and physical statics, they don't really stand a chance... Putting away his axes, he stuffs their weapons in his backpack before heading off to his next destination.​​

Unexpectedly, there weren't all that many interesting things inside the concrete hexagonal forest. Sure there were a few landmines he had to keep an eye out for, but other than that this place was pretty barren.

It didn't take long to reach the next location of interest, Lightwaves Dynamics Research. The building looked similar to the last one, like a regular warehouse you'd see in any arid parts of America...

Afton did notice a couple creatures patrolling the outskirts of the building though. They walked on all fours and had a similar body shape to mountain lions, though their heads looked reptilian, like a snake's. Their tales also appeared to resemble rattle-snakes, as opposed to regular mammals.

All in all, Afton was 99% sure these things were biologically engineered. It just didn't make sense that a mammal would mutate to acquire reptilian features. Regardless, he recognised what they were from his time in the Brotherhood... Night Stalkers. Incredibly stealthy, and deadly predators, that can be found throughout the wasteland.

The Brotherhood wasn't sure where they originate from, but if Afton had to guess. He'd say the Think Tank may have had a hand in them... Especially considering the fact that no creatures could enter or leave due to the tesla fence surrounding the crater.

It didn't take long to pick them all off with his Anti-Material rifle. By the time they found where he was shooting from most were already dead. Their tough skin didn't do much against .50 calibre bullets. With that done, he headed to the doors of the building.

Once inside, however, this place was completely different from the last facility. It was a huge single room with metal stairs leading up to a balcony at the end of the opposite side, overlooking everything around it. It was very dark, but in the middle of the room was some kind of light beam? It travelled from the roof to the floor and appeared to be holding something up at around head height.

He wasn't sure what the purpose of the light was, but upon closer inspection, he spotted some kind of... Ring? Floating in the light. Now, he wasn't about to put his hand inside something that could potentially liquefy all of his organs instantly, even with his [Miracle Maker] Perk.

So, instead he just broke a nearby table and tossed a couple of wood shards through it... And was baffled when they halted in midair... No, not halted, just moving very, very slowly. As if their time relative to his own had been affected by the light.

He scratches his head, "The fuu-uck?" he mutters, wondering what this was, or why it functioned like that. Ignoring the beam of light for now, he headed up the stairs and almost expelled it bowls when he came face to face with a GHOST!...

...

No, not a ghost. Just a hologram? It turned to look at him but didn't do anything else... Afton waves his hand at it and finds his hand going straight through it. "Er, do you speak?" he asks, but doesn't receive an answer.

He spots a terminal nearby and accesses it, finding a few emails explaining that the 'hologram' project would have been scrapped without 'Sinclair's request'. This was the guy who supposedly created the Sierra Madre, the place Christine had chased Elijah to...

Afton continues investigating and finds a number of controls around the room, there were a couple large generators in the corner of the room, giving off a low hum as they continued to produce power for this facility, even 200 years later.

It was slightly distracting to work on the machinery while the ghostly figures of the holograms were walking around, but he couldn't really do much about them right now... Though, he found a button he was sure would turn them off and pushed it, causing the beam of light in the middle of the room to shut off instead of the holograms.

Shrugging to himself, he spots that the pieces of wood that he'd thrown earlier had dropped to the ground now that the light wasn't putting them in stasis. And, now that the light wasn't there, he could clearly see the other object that had been suspended.

The ring of light was now on the floor, slowly pulsing but giving off no sound whatsoever. Afton tentatively picks it up and finds that its material is incredibly light, flexible, and feel like nothing he'd every felt before.

Using his Pipboy, he examines it to see what exactly it was...

[Valence radii-accentuator]

DT : 3

Weight : 1

Value : 10000

Effects : +1 Endurance, gradual health regeneration.

...

"Are you supposed to wear this?" he mutters to himself, fiddling around with the ring of light. Honestly, it looked like a halo that angels were depicted to have... He rests it atop his head and looks up in wonder as it comfortably floats above his head. He immediately noticed some feeling of warmth slowly wash over him, perhaps it was the health regeneration aspect?

This was interesting technology, but he wasn't sure whether he could wear it outside of Big MT... What would people think if they saw him walking around wearing a literal halo? Yeah, that'd draw too much attention.

Regardless, he'd keep it on during his stay in Big MT... Hopefully he'd find some way of making it more translucent or something.