Chapter 510 - Inverta-Birdie

Two days pass while Afton's waiting for progress on tracing the Sierra Madre broadcast, this didn't mean Afton way staying idle however. No, he'd begun to actually train his companions in how to properly utilise Power armour, production on extra sets had started, and he was beginning to think it was stupid to not equip all his MVP's with the most powerful equipment he could.

Of course, there were some exceptions... Karl, Boone, and Anja all either refused or were unable to train. Karl since he was 'disarmed' and bound to a wheelchair, Boone and Anja because Power armour wouldn't meaningfully improve their abilities... Honestly, using Power armour would drastically decrease their combat effectiveness in the field.​​

So as a result, Tamia and Josie were the only ones getting trained. Tamia because he melee combat style would heavily suit using Power armour, and Josie because she was becoming a 'general purpose' or 'Jack of all trades'.

Josie knew how to spot, sneak, shoot, repair, build, modify, and much more. Once she was kitted out with some Power armour she'd become an effective field agent (depending on the mission). And could fit into any role, no matter the team.

Still, her primary role was to repair, maintain, and help build vehicles, which is why she was so upset by the destruction of Dirt-Hog... Fortunately, Afton had been trying to fix their lack of transportation, and only a day ago had the robots he'd sent started teleporting back with parts in hand.

What parts you might ask? Well, when the Brotherhood of Steel first entered the Mojave, they'd passed by a crashed Vertibird that was in relatively good shape, if you ignored the catastrophic damage it'd taken during the crash that is, of course, most people would write it off as 'fucked beyond recognition', but with Afton's [Mechanicus] Perk, that wasn't necessarily true.

So, that brings Afton and Josie as they wait in the garage/workshop in Big Mt, with small arcs of lightning occurring outside and delivering spider bots that carried parts of the Vertibird with them. The robots would lay the parts down on the group before exiting, teleporting away, and bringing back more.

Obviously, this would be a nightmare for anyone trying to reconstruct it, so it was fortunate (or not), that the Think Tank and Brotherhood of Steel had many, many blueprints detailing how to construct, maintain, and alter Vertibirds.

Honestly, the only reason Afton hadn't built an army of them was due to how incredibly difficult they were to actually build... So many moving components and complicated hardware and software systems that needed to be heavily tested to prevent catastrophic malfunction.

It would honestly be easier to build the Bomber the Boomer's had from scratch... Which was another project entirely.

"So, er, what are you gonna call this one? Dirt-Eagle?" Josie asks, looking down at the disassembled Vertibird.

Afton shrugs, "I was more thinking of calling it Dirt-Bird... 2.0." he states.

Josie just shakes her head at him, "Please don't, if you start along this line then all of our vehicles are going to get very, confusing, very fast..." she says. They'd have Dirt-Bird the bike, Dirt-Bird 2.0 the Vertibird, and she bet Dirt-Bird 3.0 would be a submarine or something nonsensical.

"Fine. I'll name it when it's built, but no promises on the name when that happens." he states.

Josie nods and begins looking through the blueprints, having never worked on anything like this before... Trucks don't have much resemblance to aircraft after all.

The duo continue their jovial bantering while they begin reading the blueprints... To be honest, the relationship between Josie and Afton had been a bit awkward after the Mr X incident. She's been very stressed out and incredibly anxious by it all... That is, until Boone had pulled her over for a 'heart to heart' talk.

He'd essentially just explained that he was in the same boat as her, but had more experience with hiding his emotions, as well as the problems afflicting the NCR itself. He admitted that he didn't know if Afton was the solution to that problem, but he had no idea if it could be fixed through other methods... They were just ants compared to the country after all.

That talk had given Josie a bit of perspective into her situation, she wasn't the first person with conflicting loyalties, and she certainly wouldn't be the last. Regardless, she'd focussed on what she wanted, how she'd get there, and whether or not the NCR could help her with it... That, as well as what her conscience could actually cope with.

Over a thorough 'internal debate' she felt that Bulwark might be her only shot at actually improving the situation in the wasteland, as opposed to making it worse or doing nothing at all. At least this way she could say 'I tried, but it wasn't enough', or 'I was apart of the revolution that changed the wasteland for the better'...

Though, despite all of these things running through her mind, the biggest thing she was ashamed to admit was the fact Bulwark would likely have a vast expanse of vehicles for her to meddle with. Still, she'd keep that to herself as it sounded a lot worse than 'I wanted to make the world a better place'.

The duo continued looking over the blueprints, double, triple, and quadruple checking it to make sure they weren't missing anything. After the day was over she left to get some sleep while Afton stayed behind... They hadn't even started on it, which has why she was so surprised to find a half-built Vertibird in the garage...

She didn't know whether she should be impressed at his efficiency, or offended at the fact he'd done almost everything without her! She grumbles to herself in irritation, "At least I'll have a hand in picking the onboard weaponry."