Chapter 468 - Command Over Freedom

The introduction of the faction new 'branding' was more or less taken well. In all honesty, nobody really cared about what represented them as long as it wasn't a hammer and sickle or a Swastika... Afton could agree with the sentiment, but as the leader of Bulwark, he had to take things a little more seriously than them.

The scientists in the Think Tank were happy that he'd taken aspects from the Big Mt logo, as it showed he, and they, wouldn't forget their origins. While a few of them were tired and jaded, they still respected the institution that had literally 'made' them.​​

Other than that, not much else happened aside from stamping the logo on everything reasonable... Though, Afton may have taken it slightly to far when he stamped Tamia on the forehead when she came to apologize to him.

He'd been forced to apologize by gifting her an Ultra Chainsword... Fortunately, he'd been meaning to do that regardless so he didn't lose much aside from some pride.

That said, Tamia did need to go and meet Mr House soon, I doubt the man had been expecting her to skive off for a couple weeks before actually bothering to come to him. Fortunately, Afton had located a couple spots in Freeside where they could teleport without attracting too much attention.

He was still wary of sending her out so soon, especially after he'd broken the news of what Caesar had actually done to her family, but she seemed to have recovered relatively quickly after some 'sessions' with Caesar himself.

Afterall, there's nothing more cathartic than some good old revenge. By the time she left his cell, Caesar was missing all of his limbs. This wasn't too terrible as Afton had already recovered all the information he wanted from the man, so his usefulness was at its end...

Despite that though, Afton was still keeping him around for a certain... Project. It was still in its Beta phase, but Afton was sure it would advance their technology as a whole, along with helping out a number of people within Big Mt.

While Tamia, Veronica, and Anja were headed to meet with House, Afton turns his attention towards Novac. Fortunately, the town hadn't been attacked while they were busy bullying the Legion, but that didn't mean no one had made any hostile actions.

The NCR for instance had set up a large number of Ranger patrols around the area, presumably to try and stop them from receiving any supplies... Obviously, that didn't work as everything was teleported into the town, it was still bothersome though to know that the NCR still wished to capture him and his people, even despite the power they displayed only recently.

As Novac was Bulwark's only real foothold in the Mojave, he'd start pulling out all the stops to make sure it stays, well, there... There wouldn't be much he could do with it if it turned into a radioactive crater after all.

The townsfolk had basically all accepted to be under Bulwark's wing, even if most didn't understand what the function of Bulwark actually was... Afton didn't bother explaining it either, as eventually, their actions would speak for them.

It wasn't as if the townsfolk could refuse assimilation into the new faction either, as Afton was the one providing all their food, water, and other supplies. Unless they wanted to take the risk of being captured by the NCR, they were stuck under his control.

As for how he was going to help Novac? Well, first of all he was going to upgrade those scrapheap walls that'd been set up around the town. Sure, it was useful when they first starting rebelling, but now it was a hindrance and blocking them from building anything better.

The wall was made from old ruined cars, scrap metal, and anything else people could cobble together. Afton had a couple choices on how to deal with it... The first would be to remove the wall entirely and build a new one from there. However, this would be incredibly expensive and resource-intensive, not to mention risky as they'd be deconstructing their own defences under the enemies nose.

The second option was the one Afton was leaning towards... Upgrading the current wall. He already had an idea on how to achieve this too!... He'd pour molten iron into the gaps of the wall, once it hardens it'd basically be impenetrable. Sure, it'd use a lot of metal, but not as much as building a new wall would be. Plus, it'd allow them to upgrade it without removing their own defences.

On the more offensive side of things, he decided to show his middle finger to the mercenaries that'd attacked them previously. He did this by deconstructing the lightning firing Arc-Rifle that they'd left behind and creating automatic arc-gun turrets around the walls.

Afton wasn't actually sure what the weapon was called, but Arc-Rifle made to most sense to him. In all honesty, it was far more powerful than it should have any right to, the energy consumption was a slight problem, but its sheer power and ability to utterly decimate Power armour made up for it.

Indeed, it was a surprise to Afton as well when he tried testing it on Power armour, it didn't damage the armour all that much aside from scorching it, but the internal systems were another matter entirely.

If a regular Brotherhood of Steel T-51b suit of power armour were hit, it'd essentially act as an emp blast on the area that was hit. Permenantly frying the systems while literally frying the person still inside the armour.

This might even be a problem against Afton's own power armour, as the blasts of electricity would rapidly head up the Saturenite plating. Though, with his new Perk [Freeza Style!] he was far more resistant to heat than he'd otherwise be... But that didn't stop anyone else wearing the armour from being cooked to a crisp.

Obviously, he'd have to take all of this into account when designing the next set of armour. He hadn't been worried about it as he didn't expect the Legion to find and use its weakness, but their stupidity likely wouldn't affect the other factions when it came down to it.

Afton sighs and leans back in his chair, "When did everything become so hard!?"

"When you took responsibility for Big Mountain, and the town of Novac, User." Nyx states, allowing Afton to groan in affirmation.