Chapter 551 - Foggy Memories.

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Afton just sits there silently with a dull look on his face after listening to the Holodisk. It certainly hadn't been what he was expecting, he'd always considered Cass as a more 'stern-face, hard worker, down to the earth' type of person... Seems he'd missed her more boisterous side.​​

Regardless, if you ignore the fluff she hadn't, they'd finally made progress infiltrating the NCR. This was an especially big accomplishment since they now had teleportation coordinates directly into their capital city.

If the NCR royally pissed him off by throwing a nuke at him or something, he'd just send the Giant, Giant Robo-Scorpion at them... He honestly doubted that they'd be able to kill it before it completely destroyed and irradiated the entire city.

Plus, as Cass said, he should now be receiving transmissions from his micro receivers. He has Glados tap into it and begins listening to a couple to see if anything interesting was happening...

The answer to his query is a big NO. Seems like the only people who'd been tapped had been 'rich young masters' with too much money on hand. He'd gone through the around twenty-something micro receivers and only three of which had been close enough to actually hear anything, the others having been stuffed into closets and forgotten.

Even with the three active ones, one was currently getting his cock sucked by a servant or something, one was in a bar or drinking establishment... It was only the last one that actually had something interesting going on. From what he could hear, they were currently sitting in some kind of hearing discussing the reduction of a Brahmin baron's land.

The person wearing his suit seemed to be the son of the baron, and was muttering curses under his breath as the Brahmin baron Ghed Duurne, has pieces of his land cut away and handed to his competitors. His products also seem to be more heavily taxed than everyone else.

The person that's wearing his suit is called Samuel Duurne from what he can infer, yet, Afton can't tell why this hearing is even occurring... Once it devolves into boring paperwork and bureaucratic shit he turns it off and has Glados keep monitoring it. Perhaps he could start some subterfuge with that disgruntled Brahmin baron?

He sighs and stands, deciding to cut to the chase and speak to the scientists about the Sierra Madre... Perhaps explaining what he'd found there would jog their memories? That group of senile pre-war brail-bowls better remember something, otherwise he might have to consider letting Glados try to 'jog' their memories a bit.

He heads down the stairs and enters the Think Tank, spotting most of the scientists busily researching various projects, writing equations or drawing up schematics. Though, Klein doesn't seem to be present... He's probably in the Forbidden Zone Dome with Mobius again... Shaking his head, he speaks to Dala, Zero, Borous, and 8, all of which not knowing anything about the Sierra Madre, or the projects that led to the creation of LITERAL MATTER MANIPULATORS!

He quickly finishes speaking to them and teleports over to the Forbidden Dome, finding Klein and Mobius deep into discussion about something. He ignores the substance of the topic and interjects himself in between them. "Klein, Mobius." he states, surprising and catching both scientist's attention.

"AH!? LOBOTOMITE? SEEMS LIKE YOU'VE RETURNED FROM YOUR EXPEDITION, DID EVERYTHING GO WELL? DID YOU FIND ANYTHING SCIENCY?" the scientist curiously asks.

Afton nods, "Yeah, which is why I'm here actually... Does either of you remember the Think Tank sending any technology to one Frederick Sinclaire?"

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"Uhhhm?" Mobius ers aloud, contemplating it with maximum effort.

"HMMMMM..." Klein is the same, his bio-gel fluctuating due to the amount of 'BRAIN POWER' they were exerting.

This continues for around five minutes while Afton waits with crossed arms, allowing the scientists all the time they need to consider this... It was important information after all, he'd definitely need to know if there were other locations that'd received similar technology...

"Aha!" Mobius loudly and suddenly ejaculates (Lol), "I think I remember that! Something about playing a joke on the not-so-rich-boy who could barely pay for the tech he was buying... Some socially inept egg-heads decided it would be funny to rig that place with potentially world-ending technology if I'm not mistaken?"

Afton nods, "Yeah, it's called the Cloud, a corrosive red fog that covered miles around the Sierra Madre and was still expanding until I stopped it. Even the sky had been blotted out by it..."

"NOW, THAT JUST SEEMS LIKE OVERKILL..." Klein mutters.

Mobius jabs a manipulator at Klein, "Says the mongoloid who wanted to design self-perpetuating nanobots... Even I'M not that stupid!"

"WHY YOU!-"

"Both of you, shut the fuck up!" Afton interjects, giving both scientists a firm push away from one another before turning back to Mobius, "I'll ask again, are there other locations which received tech from the Think Tank?"

Mobius drops into silent pondering yet again, taking another five minutes to search his rather vast compilation of memories. "I seem to recall Dala sending biometric data to someplace called the... Insta-... Instaaaa... Instant noodle? In Boston...?"

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Afton sends a dull, unamused look at Mobius, "You think Dala sent biometric data to the instant noddle." he states with disbelief.

"You try sifting through two hundred years of fuzzy memories! You're barely an adult and I bet you barely remember what you ate yesterday!" he exclaims defensively.

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Afton doesn't actually have a response to his words since he really didn't remember what he'd had for dinner yesterday... The matter manipulators gave him too many options to pick from, so he'd been having different dishes everyday, most bringing up strong nostalgic feelings since they were pre-war foods.

Afton sheepishly coughs into his fist and redirects the subject matter "Can you try to recall where the data was sent?"

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Another ten minutes of silence and Mobius finally speaks up again, "The Institute I believe they are called... An organisation not so dissimilar to our own, one preaching innovation and the scientific method, while specialising with robotics... I think?"