21"Remember Lobotomite, you must only connect the Z-15 reatomitizing unit with the reconjugation subroutinal processing center. I know how those two cans look alike, but Dala would need to reconstitute you from a tube! That's what Dala would do, right?" The voice of Dr. Klein cracked out through the radio. It was a faint transmission, but it was still clear to him.
The Think Tank always were good for a laugh at first. And the next minutes would make most people want to blow their brains out. No one with a hint of sanity wanted to deal with them. But they were smart, now if only that intelligence came with sanity or ethics. They had parted with sanity a while ago, and most of them probably only read of what ethics were.
"Dr. Klein, that is not what my position in this facility is for. And while I admit that my duties…" Dala's voice trailed off to him, as he lowered the volume on his Pip-Boy. He didn't need to hear what she was going to talk about next. Dala's love of him was something he knew and was the creepiest thing about that whole bunch of nuts.
"[$((*&#%**]. [$((*&^#%]." At least he could count on Dr. 8 for a bit of support, a voice of relative sanity. It wasn't the worst thing in the world talking to him, the slight language gap at least was a bit of a nice break from the loudness of Klein and Borous. "* *(**&)#$.^$#[#$^^*]." He turned the volume back to normal at the exclamation, it was important to make sure the wires didn't cross. Or it could cause a feedback echo, which meant that the teleporter would end up splitting whatever was being teleported into a million more pieces than it should've been. Not a good way to go, but at least he'd be dead in an instant.
"I heard you Dr. 8, no crossing the reatomizing unit's wires with anything else." He spoke into the Pip-Boy, as he finished laying down another piece of wiring. Now the only thing he needed to do was make sure the fusion core was sealed properly. Luckily this was only a test run, and not on him. It was only for a few lucky specimens.
It was no secret to him that Big MT produced many inventions that defied everything he understood about science. From the K9000 Cyberdog gun, to the Cloud and Hologram defenders. None of them made any sense, but he rolled with it. They did make many useful inventions, it was just that their earlier ideas were often the cause of many near death experiences.
The Sierra Madre was a city of ghosts because of them, from creating the faulty suits that created the Ghosts, to the Cloud which forced the wearers into the suits in the first place. He also couldn't forget the holograms, he hated the Madre so much because of them. At least he could hit a Deathclaw or a cazador, the holograms never flinched when hit, and couldn't be killed. Only deactivated.
The weather of the Divide was also part of Big MT's doing, and was responsible for the creation of the Marked Men. He also couldn't forget what they had done here.
Seriously, who in their right mind though hexacrete was a good idea in the first place? Who thought the world needed a monster like a cazador, why all the splicing? Or giving life to a little Securitron obsessed with mugs?
Yet here he was, working on a device for some of the biggest lunatics in the world. And they were also some of the very few lunatics from the old world that were still alive. But he couldn't disagree that the idea they had going was useful. Well useful when looked at through the eyes of any sane man. The reasoning they used wasn't exactly decipherable to most people, House included. But the results should still be the same.
What had started out as a simple idea to increase the effective range of the Transportalponder!, in a rather unique way. The system was easy to use, if it was within the range of effect. But the Think Tank decided that it wasn't enough, so they began launching more satellites, which all promptly ended up falling to the ground at the exact same spot as before. All of them crashing at the same drive-in. Luckily only a few got killed by them, and they were Jackals. Who cared for a bunch of raiders anyway?
Yet those geniuses had done it at least twenty times. But that wasn't getting started on all the problems they created, because they always did come up with another way to improve upon the design.
So, Dr. 8 had proposed a new method, one based on his field of expertise. He didn't listen to the full speech that the Think Tank gave him, but the idea was simply to change the frequency of the Transportalponder! to something that could travel further and reach deep underground.
That was the first device those lunatics had created, and against all logic, their science actually worked. Well, it did serve its function of being a different teleporter.
What he didn't expect was the Think Tank ending up finding another world, or so they claimed it. At first he was going to chalk it up to their minds being scrambled by Mobius' tampering, that and the mentats. He could handle that, he'd make sure they didn't make any unfortunate community another testing ground, there were many things in this facility that were better off staying undiscovered.
But then came the second wave of tests on that new teleportation unit, those were the ones he had seen with his very eyes. It was a tame test for the standards around there, just launching a simple reconnaissance satellite to look at the other side of this "new world". He was expecting them to fail, maybe it would end up teleporting their little satellite into some pit of toxic waste.
He wasn't surprised in the least when it disappeared in an explosion of sparks, but what did shock him was when they sent the recall command to the satellite an hour later. The Think Tank's record for experiments had made him willing to see how this one would explode.
Except the opposite happened, the satellite had indeed returned, a few nicks on it and one of the wings damaged, but it was almost intact. And then they showed him the footage.
He didn't want to believe it at first, and he still wished to a degree that it was just a place unscarred by the Great War. But with the destruction that followed the nuclear exchange, there weren't many places where there was this much green. Not even Zion was this pure, and did anywhere escape the effects of the Great War unscathed?
Then the satellite began to drift a bit, apparently the Think Tank had neglected to install something to maintain the satellites flight for more than a few minutes, as it quickly became clear when the satellite began to fall straight out of the sky. The camera waved erratically, almost as if the satellite were trying to compensate and break its fall.
Sadly, that didn't do anything in the way of breaking its fall. But it did show him an area in the distance. The only thing of note was the massive tower in the distance, almost reaching into the clouds themselves. And surrounding that tower looked to be a city of sorts, with walls and everything.
That certainly was noteworthy in itself, and it did make him actually want to side with the Think Tank on something. He wasn't exactly the most well-traveled of people, but he didn't recall a large tower being made out of what looked like stone anywhere at all. Sure the Boneyard had many old skyscrapers, but those were made of steel and glass.
Well, more like they used to. But the idea behind it was still the same.
The satellite's crash site wasn't that far from the city, but it still seemed to have crashed in a remote area. Or no one was feeling brave enough to investigate where it landed. But without it being in the air it didn't really serve its purpose, it only showed him the bottom of a field.
Dirt was still as unexciting in that place as it was in the Mojave.
But all those findings had led up to this moment, creating a newer version of the teleporter that they were working on. One that could sustain itself for longer, and teleport without the use of a satellite.
And that's what he was working on right now. Now all that was left to do was making sure the Fusion Core wasn't unstable.
That didn't mean he had no other problems, everything the Think Tank was proposing was only a theory. One of their theories at that, so he had to plan ahead.
First and certainly the most important was the ability to actually set up a base near the city, hopefully away from the locals. He didn't know if they were friendly, so caution was best.
The other main concern he had was getting the teleporter to align just right, he didn't want to be teleported straight into the air and then end up a splatter on the ground.
And he also had to make sure he even got there in one piece, if Klein or 8 didn't carry the right numbers, well at least his death would be quick. That was also why he was here putting on the finishing touches himself. He wouldn't put it past one of the other members of the Think Tank to try and make some fucking idiotic improvements on the teleporter.
At least that care package he had the others working on would do him some good. Building a base would take a lot of time and effort… if he were a normal man with only ordinary tools. But Big MT had made many strides in building materials and space compression. It would also serve as the first real test of the new teleporter. Once he was done with a few basic experiments, to prove that sending the package wouldn't be a waste of time.
It wasn't something major that they were doing right now, it was only to make sure that both animate and inanimate objects would survive the teleportation. It was also to make sure they teleported on the ground. If it worked, then they moved onto the next stage of plans. That was when he'd look into building… well something. The Think Tank wanted to call it Big Mountain Extra-Dimensional. It was a work in progress, he'd give them that. At least Borous hadn't worked more on that name, or else he'd never be able to keep a straight face whenever it got brought up.
Borous and Dala would provide the life, and 0 provided the robots and turrets.
He made a note to keep an eye on the crates and cages Borous was filling up with his latest experiments. He didn't want to inflict another place with the infection known as the cazador. They were enough trouble in the Mojave, bringing them to a new world was something he couldn't let happen.
Same for Dala and her studies, she did have a hand in the X-22 facility. The very same facility that ended up creating plants and spore carriers. He wasn't going to let those get out, he could already imagine just what sorts of trouble it would cause.
Starting off a fungal epidemic wasn't an effective way to start off anything, much less contact with another world. And if there was a city, that meant someone had to have built it. People who could end up infected by those spores. If they were human that was, which according to the Think Tank was hovering around half a percent, with the highest probability being inhabited by humanoid turtles, bacteria, and a rather large collection of silverware. He choose to hope that it did have humans, for his sake.
As for 0, his inventions were the least likely to cause some massive disaster. Although that was only because his robots would be stationary. He couldn't screw up a turret that badly, could he?
Well there was a good reason he'd be going in with a lot of weaponry, and power armor. Assuming the machine was able to teleport things without rendering them an atomic splatter. He'd sooner walk straight into the Divide without any armor than trust the Think Tank to build something that didn't try and kill the user. It wasn't that he hated them with a passion, it was just facts. Those self-professed geniuses did have a horrible record when it came to any experiments.
Speaking of which, he now had to reset the whole system. It was nearly completed now, and once the prototype was up he'd start the line of tests. The wiring was done, the system just had to be reset to see if everything connected without any leaks. And if everything worked, that meant the power core wasn't leaking.
The teleporter wasn't something he could just haul around all day, the thing was the size of a Brahmin. Although if the tests worked, they could hook it up to the power supply for the Big Empty and let it run constantly. A portal, not exactly the finest of ones though.
"Uh Klein, you did reconfigure the power core, right? That thing was buzzing a lot when I looked over it." The voice of Dr. 0 buzzed through the radio once more.
"Nonsense, that power core has served this facility since the Great Static! Why would it fail in our hour of need!" Klein's voice boomed once more, well he'd just make sure to behind something when he reset the system.
That was probably the most reassuring thing he could've heard right now. But her never did get far in life by being a wise man. A wise man wouldn't have done even half of the stuff he did.
"Restarting the system now, are the sensors working?" And once he got the word, it was time to see what would happen. If it fired, that meant it was time to work on the tests.
"The green lights are for the sensors, right? Right?" Dr Klein asked, his voice lowering just a bit. He choose to take that as a yes.
"Alright, I'm restarting it now." And with that, he flipped the two switches on the side of the device. And quickly ran to the other room in the back.
He wasn't going to risk his life with the Think Tank's faulty math. If someone forgetting to carry a two was enough to blow up a mountain, he didn't want to see what else one of their errors would cause.
Surprisingly enough, he didn't hear any explosion. There was no loud boom either, or even the sound of his Geiger counter going off. It only made a small hum, and then a flash of blue light.
"Did it work? The lights are still green here, especially this little one on top of the microphone here." Dr. Klein spoke up.
He poked his head out of the room, looking at the device in all of its cumbersome glory.
It was letting out a blue glow that lit up the room. No piece of it had fallen off, and it also wasn't on fire.
The test had worked.
"It's working, can you send up the first experiments?" Now it was time to test.
And if those went well, it was time to see this with his own eyes.
"Indeed it is Lobotomite, and the test subjects are already on their way. Straight from the halls of Z-14 comes the new and improved cazador, with the stingers of stinginess!" That was actually an improvement over what his original idea was, Borous had wanted to splice together a cazador and a deathclaw, just because he liked the look of the claws. And knowing Borous, the thing would've had a dozen babies in the Mojave by the end of the week.
"And I also included some Saturnite based life, I just couldn't part with any of my precious teddy bears." He choose not to think any more on what Dala was talking about. Nope, he wasn't going to turn to whiskey today.
Well now all that was left to do was wait for the containers to get to this floor. This part of Big MT was new, so at least the elevator to bring the specimens up shouldn't be broken. He still would keep his rifle leveled at the crates though, with the Think Tank you never knew what they'd mess up.
But he a lot of time on his hands, and that wasn't being philosophical like Arcade. Those surgeries and augmentations that the Auto-Doc had done to him had probably extended his life span for a few decades, maybe even centuries.
Sadly, the same improvements couldn't be done to Mr. House, but he was still doing fine with what he had. Doing pretty well for someone who was over two-hundred years old, in as much as a man on a screen could be.
If these experiments worked, he made a note to inform House about this development. It might be easier than his plan to go into space, maybe. He didn't need to deal with the specifics right now, but this was unexpected. Than again, didn't that describe everything the Think Tank came up with?
The sound of buzzing soon assaulted his ears, along with soft banging on metal. That had to be the new cazador, and from the banging it was a lively one. There was no way he was going to let that thing loose without doing a few adjustments himself. A plasma grenade would be fine, all he had to do was strap the thing to the front of its cage and loosen the thing a bit. If the cazador busted the door, the grenade would go off.
No more cage, but more importantly there should be no more cazador. Now that he thought about it, better make it two, no three. Yeah, three would be a good idea. Knowing what Borous tended to splice together, the damn thing must've been sporting something that could be used as a replacement for power armor.
Better slap on some more explosives, just in case. A few more grenades ought to help, nothing wrong with a few more explosives.
The banging only increased as he placed more grenades on the crate, apparently it didn't like anything tapping its cage.
He was sending this thing through the teleporter as quick as he could.
"Starting the first test now, with the live specimen straight from Dr. Borous." He spoke into his Pip-Boy, as he once more started the machine up. And with a quick zap, the crate was gone.
"Yes, I see. It is currently zooming through space and time, but to where will it end up? Will we be safe when the crate returns, from beyond the dome?" Borous was good at theatrics, he'd give him that.
"Borous the light on recalling module is dark. You didn't do anything to that crate, did you?" Oh shit, he didn't-.
"It was looking at me with those eyes 0, it just couldn't stay in that little cage. And since I spent so much time working on it, I thought it would be more humane to just free up little space there was left." He did, he took out the recall unit.
It wasn't exactly advanced, but it was the only way for the cage to teleport back here. That thing was the only link between the cage and the teleporter.
Of course, Borous decided that now was a good idea to be ethical, with a cazador.
Well those grenades would kill it if it tried to escape, hopefully.
With a flash, the crate appeared in a grassy field next to a road. If the cazador were capable of escaping right now, it would've been able to smell the salt in the air. It wasn't that far from the sea, but the cazador was a simple beast, and only cared for what it needed to survive.
It wanted to find good prey, not the sea.
As it looked out of its cage, it saw what would be fitting to feast on. It smelt young, and it was away. But still, it was the closest pray it could sense.
And so, the cazador began banging at its cage. Rattling the grenades ever more. The only thing on its mind was to feast.
Meanwhile the boy that was being targeted was none the wiser, the route he was taking was known for being a safe route with little in the way of monsters.
Than again, cazadores weren't a monster that this world knew.
Anyway, here's a Danmachi/Fallout crossover I've been thinking off for a while. Now I understand that the city next to the sea is Melen which appears a bit more in Memoria Freese than it does in SO. I'm also aware that the mountain's Bell grew near aren't exactly close to Melen, but paths intersect and all. So just his luck Big MT choose to teleport a cazador close to him.
This little event at the end is more to give a timeframe, I'm not going to just kill off Bell for the kick of it, the kid has to get used to running away sooner or later. Or maybe he'll have one kill to his name. Somehow.
Anyway, I'm also looking for a beta reader for this story, if anyone's interested. I know my grammar at times can have some hiccups and all.
As for those interested in pairings and the like, I can only confirm the Think Tank X Science! so far. Don't worry, it's not like there's going to be harem stealing here.
And of course, please review!