Chapter 548 - Treasure!

Afton dips down into a squat and begins trying to wrench the hatch open, the metal squealing as he puts all his strength into it.

*SQQUUUUEEEEEEAAAAaaaaaaKUK!*​​

A crack rings out around the room, and Afton is suddenly able to lift the hatch open as if it were on hinges... Looks like he'd broken the internal mechanism... Regardless, he was excited to see what's inside. He fully opens the hatch and quickly climbs down the ladder, the room below him slowly lighting up and revealing what was hidden inside.

The trio reaches the bottom and gape at it all... "Holy fuck." Veronica mutters, taking her helmet off and rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn't hallucinating or something. "You guys seeing what I'm seeing?"

"I think so..." Afton mutters, ideas of how to use all of this flooding his mind.

Before them, was a huge warehouse room filled to the brim with everything someone could desire... Food, water, wine, treats, snacks, TV's with every TV show ever aired sitting nearby in Holodisks. Clothes for every occasion, in every size... The many shelves contained literally anything you could ever ask for... But that wasn't what drew the trio's gaze...

Over at one side of the room were ingots... Gold ingots. Hundreds, if no thousands were stacked onto one another, shining in the light as if glowing. Beside them were other metals too, from what Afton could see, ingots of platinum, tarnished silver, copper, tin, aluminium, and even iron. Seems like Sinclaire was hoping at least one metal would prove valuable in the post-apocalypse economy.

"It's amazing, but... Where is the technology Elijah spoke about?" Veronica murmurs. She and Christine split off in search of it while Afton walks over to the pile of gold and sits on the ingots with a greedy smile plastered across his face. This was more gold than anywhere else in the wasteland... There were so many things he could do with it...

The NCR used to hold many stockpiles of gold that they'd inherited from pre-war America, but the Brotherhood stole and destroyed a large portion of it, leading to their collapsed and weak economy. If they got word that Bulwark held more gold than they had, even in their prime, war would be inevitable.

Though, if he made his possession of so much gold known, he could start his own currency that would be backed by it. Caps were backed by water as well as their own value as metal though, so Afton was unsure whether or not it was worth creating a 'Bulwark' currency... It would certainly allow him further control over places that used it, but security and faith in it would have to be managed...

Regardless if the gold would be used to back any currency, it would always be useful as the material itself. Gold was incredibly valuable when electronics were concerned, and he was looking forward to see what the scientists could come up with when presented with such an abundance of resources.

Eventually, while he's still in thought Veronica and Christine walk back over to him with peculiar looks. Christine looked incredibly amused while Veronica looked a little sad.

Afton raises a brow at them both, "What is it?"

"We... We didn't find what Elijah was searching for... I don't think it even existed in the first place, meaning he committed all those crimes for nothing." Veronica mutters.

Christine smirks, "Even his final actions were stupid and misguided... The story of his life." she spits.

"Did you find any interesting technology at all?" he inquires.

They nod, "We found the communication system that's actually broadcasting to the wasteland. We already turned it off to stop it from attracting any more treasure hunters, that's about it though. Veronica says.

"Good. I'm thinking that we should think about transporting everything here to Big Mt. We could claim this place as our own, but... It's already too well known amongst the wasteland. As soon as the Cloud begins to fade, they'll come to this place in droves, so it's best to strip it of value before leaving.

Veronica crooks a brow, "The Cloud is fading?"

Afton shrugs, "Not right now, but will be once I disable the machinery controlling it. I can't leave something as dangerous as that here, we'll take it apart and transport everything to Big Mt for further study. If it proves useful, we might end up using it as an extra defensive measure... Though, I'm unsure over whether or not it would be justifiable to use it as an offensive weapon..." he explains.

The reason Afton didn't want to use it was obvious, if the factions around the wasteland got word of a never-ending corrosive fog enveloping regions of the wasteland, one section at a time got out, people would use everything at their disposal to try and stop him. Armies, airstrikes, artillery, even nukes.

The Cloud was such a powerful weapon that if survivors from other continents got word of it, they'd jump into action as well. And even if Afton was willing, he still needed to think about Bulwark's image.

The speech he'd made during the debate that Crocker had set up essentially made Bulwark out as a better alternative to the Brotherhood of Steel. Yet, if he was seen using the Cloud, any goodwill he'd garnered among the people would immediately be lost.

The reason for this was obvious... Fear. Afton couldn't think of something more frighteningly terrifying than an ephemeral, immortal, never-ending for capable of destroying entire cities with ease, washing over the country like a tidal wave with no end in sight. That was the kind of shit that'd make someone shoot themselves in despair. This would only be emphasized if people discovered the Ghosts that the Cloud created. Imagine discovering Deathclaw ghosts and super mutant behemoth ghosts wandering around... Yeah, scary stuff.