Chapter 165 - 165

Words : 1824 Updated : Sep 19th, 2025

Adam woke up the next day and got himself ready quickly. He headed to the food court, grabbed breakfast for 38 caps, and then headed down to the flea market for a bit before deciding it was time to gather people together. Adam's first stop was Deccanus, who was available for Adam like usual at the drop of a hat. Then he went to see Salvatore who was groggy but was available for a chat, lastly he stopped at Eve's place, a quaint home on the second floor in a more residential area of the city. Eve, being a robot, didn't need to sleep so she was already up and about when Adam came. She greeted him at the door and Adam only got a glimpse of what was inside but he saw a lot of color inside. "Well handsome~ What did I do to be so blessed to have you at my door this morning?" She said with a flirty tone. "You agreed to do something incredibly dangerous and stupid with me." Adam grinned, playfully. "That I did. Is it time for this little meeting of yours?" "Yes, I already told the others, can you meet me in Ghoul Town in an hour? We need to get to an Inn called the Golden Gecko." "Sure can, handsome~" She said back flirty as ever. "I will be there." Adam nodded and then turned to leave to head back to his room once more. He grabbed Buddy and took him outside as he headed to Ghoul Town. An hour later everyone was gathered. They were using Salvatore's rented room in the Inn as a meeting room for the moment, deciding to keep the contents of what they were about to do a secret from prying eyes and ears. Salvatore grumbled at having so many people in his room but didn't complain much more than that. The room itself felt like a nice rustic hotel, the bedding had a colorful quilt on it, everything looked clean, and the room had almost all wooden furniture. It didn't look the way the Inn in Naper did where Salvatore practically lived, this place was clearly a normal Inn room that Claire gave to Salvatore when he was in town. But Adam wasn't here to pry or to investigate Claire's choice in decor, he was here to work. "Thanks for coming, everyone." Adam said with a smile as everyone took a seat somewhere in the room, minus Buddy, who was standing in the corner, and Eve who simply chose not to sit and instead remained standing next to the wall closest to Adam. "I already explained to the two of you what my plan is." He said, gesturing to Eve and Salvatore. "But I want to fill you in on it too." He said to Deccanus. "In addition there are a lot more steps than simply what I told you. But let's start at the beginning. Our plan is to raid the Federal Ration stockpile." He said with certainty. Deccanus raised an eyebrow but said nothing and none of the others spoke up, not that Buddy would but he certainly didn't add anything now. "I thought you were supposed to have 7 hands for this mission? This seems quite a few short of that lofty number~" Eve said with a teasing tone. "So that is where the first part of my plan comes into play and how I plan to take as much stuff from the stockpile as I can." Adam let off a soft breath and then looked at the room. "I am going to return to my Safehouse and fix up the APC, making it functional again." There was a look of surprise on Salvatore's face and non-recognition from the other two, not that Eve had expressions but her body language showed she had no clue what Adam was talking about. "You really think you can do that kid?" Salvatore asked, skeptically. "Yes." Adam said assuredly. "I already have spent time in the Flea Market making deals with every vendor I needed to and securing everything I need to make the thing run again, batteries and tires being the two most important things. I spent damn near all my caps, but I think it will be worth it." "And you can just… make it run again?" Eve asked, uncertain. "I'm confident." Adam said back. "Wait kid, how much did you spend to get this thing running?" Salvatore asked, skeptically. "6250 caps, give or take the few extra caps I threw in as tips for the help. Im down to 91 caps." Adam laughed. Salvatore just shook his head. "That's a lot of caps to burn if it doesn't work." "It will, trust me." Adam said confidently. "I am still curious where your other helpers come in. We only have 4 here." Salvatore said. "5." Adam corrected as he gestured to Buddy. "But you are right, there are only 5 here, the other two we will be picking up from the safehouse where the APC is." "You mean that robot?" Salvatore asked. "There's two there now, assuming Rae listened to what I asked them to do." "Jesus kid, this team is more robot than man." Salvatore chuckled. "You got a problem with robots, ghoul?" Eve shot back, sounding almost offended. "Not at all." Salvatore grinned at her, menacingly, almost challenging her to try something. "I just aint ever met a robot that can shoot a damn." "I think you will find that when it comes time to fight I can out shoot anyone." Eve said back, turning to look at Salvatore fully now. "If it was 200 years ago I would still have perfect accuracy. They just don't make the precision machine parts I'd need to repair myself like they used to." "Sure sure, just make sure you don't slow us down." Salvatore grinned, once more challenging Eve to try something. "Alright knock it off you two." Adam said putting a stop to this before it went further. "If you two want you can have a competition about who puts in more work in the mission, but let's not fight, we have to work together." The two of them then turn away from each other, disengaging from the conversation, Salvatore almost pouting, but in a manly way. So he was brooding. Regardless it was Deccanus's turn to speak up. "I too am not fond of… having so many mechanical men working with us, however if you say it is smart I shall follow your lead." Deccanus said, voicing his concerns but not pushing forward. Eve looked at him but said nothing, leaving it alone. "Trust me, it will work out. Anyway at the safehouse is a robobrain named Rae and a new protectron. Though I'll be honest it's a construction model, it's not built for combat, it will just be there to help out with transport." "So that's the plan then? We get the APC running, head to the stockpile, slaughter the mutants inside, then return with a car full of loot?" Salvatore asked, Adam just shrugged. "In a nutshell, but honestly there is one more step to my plan after that…" Adam paused, steeling himself for his decision. "I have been thinking about this a lot recently, I can't keep living day to day at a hotel, it's not sustainable, I'd like to have a home. I weighed all the pros and cons, , even asking Eve about other settlements, and came to one conclusion that I think I will be following through on…" Adam paused again and then gestured with his thumb to the gold number on his vault suit. "Vault 42. I'm going back. I'm planning to make it my permanent home." He said with a resolved tone. "And the reason I'm telling you all this is because I wanted to invite each one of you to live in the vault if you want. Whether full time or part time, I wanted to offer you all a room." Adam then chuckled and added: "Honestly living in that place alone would be a bit much for me…" He smiled embarrassed. The three all looked at each other for a moment and then back at Adam. "I am not… very comfortable with Vaults…" Deccanus said hesitantly. "I promise this one is much better than the one we were in last, It just needs some work." Deccanus nodded slowly. "I will trust you, though please excuse me if I reserve my judgments until I see it." Adam nodded and then looked at Eve. "I'm not sure. This is very sudden." She put a claw to her face. "I mean we are not even married yet and you are already asking to live together~" She said, flirting and teasing now. "I will need some time to think it over, I don't live out of a hotel, I have a home in Midway, but I will think over your offer and at least see your vault before I decide." Adam nodded at her and then turned to Salvatore. "Sure." Salvatore said with a shrug. "Just like that?" Adam asked with a soft laugh. "Yeah, just like that." he grinned. "I move around a lot though, as you know, so I won't be there all the time, but I ain't going to say no to another free home, a room in a vault? Hell yeah, I'm in." He grinned. Adam laughed a bit and then shrugged. "Well you two can think about it all you need, I just wanted to let you know my plan. I'm not done with Midway, I will be back here frequently to offload goods, I just decided that I needed a base of operations, and since the Vault is moderately close to Midway, still close to the heart of the city, and well secured it seemed like a good place to live. Besides…" Adam paused as he looked at his hand. "There are still more answers about myself that might be revealed in the logs in the Vault. One way or the other I want to put this question of who I am to bed. I know what I am, I just want the final bits of closure." Eve nodded. "Well I can understand that~" "Suit yourself kid." Salvatore said with a single chuckle. "Alright so then we are agreed? I go fix the APC, then go to the FRS and then return to Midway to offload before heading to the vault? Or those that want to come anyway?" Adam said, confirming the details of the plan. There were nods throughout the room and Adam smiled. "Alright, awesome. Now, let's talk about how we plan to tackle the super mutants."

Chapter 165 - 165

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