"What is it?" Adam asked Mira as he walked over only to be met with the various strange containers he saw before but had paid no mind to. They were similar in shape to a fusion core but four times larger and were colored a bright yellow. In fact they resembled hazardous waste containers more than anything else. They also had a vertical glass window where he could see some viscous green liquid inside.
""This…" Mira began as she pointed to the containers. "Is FEV." At her comment even Deccanus turned to look, perhaps triggered by the words.
"That is…" Adam began before stopping, his mind turning. Now things were starting to make sense. Why the Cult was here, why they seemed uninterested in the things upstairs, why they fought literally to the last man against Adam and his group. It was for their 'holy elixir' the FEV. How they even learned it was here was a question in itself but he figured he would get no answers. "Can you destroy it?" Adam asked carefully.
Mira paused, looked around the room, specifically to the shelves holding any number of tools and then seemed lost in thought for a moment.
"I can neutralize it with the materials here, yes. But it will take me some time to do it."
"I think we can all agree that ensuring this FEV is destroyed is the most valuable use of your time. We can scavenge without you in the meantime." Mira then nodded to Adam and began her work, setting up some sort of chemical agent and bomb to destroy all the FEV in one go. Adam and the rest resumed the search while she worked.
The rest of the room was then thoroughly searched for anything of value, of which there was more than enough. There was nothing that stood out to him nearly as much as the alien looking blaster and the UFO looking thing. However he did find a nice scale model of a Vertibird that would make for a nice souvenir for his Vault home, so he took that gratefully.
By the time Eve made it back downstairs Adam was staring at the ceiling lamenting that he could not get to the laser sentries on the ceiling, as they were far too high without an enormous ladder, which he lacked even inside this large hanger workshop.
"Peeping on other robot girls when you have me right here? How naughty~" Eve teased as she walked up to Adam.
"I was just trying to wrack my brain to see If I could grab those up there or if I have to leave them behind."
"Why do you want them? I doubt they will sell for too much overall." Eve said, looking up now too.
"I don't know, I feel like they would sell for a lot. However the reason I want them is because we just finished the wall surrounding the Vault as you saw earlier. Having more turrets will make the entrance that much more secure.
"Hmmm." Eve mused aloud before she began to spin up her claw to full speed and then drove it right into the wall. "I can do it~" She said with a playful tone as she pulled her claw out of the powderized concrete wall, now with a handhold clearly indented inside it.
"You…" Adam turned to look at her and the wall. "You plan to bore your way into the wall and climb up there?"
"Thats exactly what I plan to do~" She spun her claws up again for a moment and then clacked her claw tips together. "Though it will wear down my joints. Luckily we just picked up a batch of new replacement parts, isn't that lucky for me?" She then let off a synthetic laugh and Adam chuckled too.
"Well if you are offering I won't say no. But only if you feel comfortable doing it."
"I'll be fine. Have more faith in your assaultron confidant~" She teased and then looked around for a moment. "Though perhaps starting from that ladder over there would be best, less grinding that I need to do." Adam agreed and then, with the help of Rae, moved the tallest ladder, still far short of the roof, to a spot on the wall where Eve would be most comfortable climbing from.
She then began her ascent, digging her claws into the walls and eventually the ceiling to create holds for her to support herself from. It was actually quite incredible. She was using the previous handholds as footholds and was climbing as if she were an expert ice climber. It's amazing what an assaultron could do when they put their minds to it. She was practically defying gravity.
Then he watched as she unscrewed the laser turret from the ceiling, strapped it to her back with a line of rope they had found in the hanger and climbed back down, the laser turret fully intact. Only for her to do it all over again to get the second one.
"I gotta say I'm impressed. Where did you even learn to do that?" Adam asked after Eve had successfully retrieved the second laser turret.
"Oh you'd be surprised at the things you learn you can do with a little bit of creativity and 200 years to experiment." She giggled. "And if you liked that I can show you what else my claws can do tonight if you want~" She teased.
"Adam." Mira called out to Adam. "I think we are done here, everything is set up with the bomb. Unless you plan on having your honeymoon down here then I think it might be time to go."
"Oh yeah, sure." Adam said as he then picked up one of the laser turrets himself. "Let's get going."
With Adam carrying one laser turret and the other carried by Rae they all made their way back to the APC to load up all their spoils of which there was not an insignificant amount. However as soon as they were clear of the stairwell a heavy boom rocked the building and caused some dust to fall down from the ceiling. The FEV was destroyed, no doubt about it.
Adam still had questions, of course, about what they were researching, where the strange tech came from, why they even had FEV here, and plenty more. However he decided to put it behind him. None of the computers he could access had any relevant data and unless he wanted to spend the next few days sifting through old paperwork he had no idea if there even were answers to be found down there. So instead of mulling it over he put it out of his head and pushed on, back to Midway.
The trip back to Midway was uneventful which was appreciated since unexpected surprises were not to Adam's liking. Upon arrival the group disembarked and began to sell off everything they had collected to all of Adam's usual merchants who would buy from him. There were a few things Adam kept, however. For one he kept the laser turrets, obviously, he also kept the other fusion core he found, he now had 2, which was incredibly handy to have around for any number of reasons. He also kept the model vertibird and his bobblehead to add to his collecting obsession. Lastly he kept the strange blaster. He had no intention of selling it. It was far too interesting of a find to sell for a pittance. Instead he planned on keeping it and locking it away in his armory for the time being.
All in all he made 5741 caps. It was a very lucrative run. However everyone denied taking their cut, and it was for a simple reason that he couldn't especially argue with too.
"You are going to hire people for this upcoming fight right?" Mira was the first one to say after Adam was getting denied the opportunity to share the caps.
"Yes?" Adam said back, confused why this was pertinent.
"Well then take that money and hire everyone you need to hire. It's not going to waste. You can consider it our contribution to the fund." Mira said, hand on her hip, not taking no for an answer. Adam looked around at the others, who were nodding their heads along in agreement. Well Rae wasn't but Rae is never quite fully aware enough to make such distinctions in the first place, which is why Rae never got a cut. With a big sigh Adam quietly put the large bag of caps and slips into his backpack and nodded.
"Alright, you win. I will use this money for the group benefit."
"Good. As it should be." Deccanus said, a small bit of triumph in his voice. For the moment, he now had 6963 caps to his name.
"Well I guess if that's that I'll let it be." Adam said before turning to look at Rae. "I have to run some repairs on Rae before I turn in for the night, so you all can head inside and get some food and shut-eye." Adam said as he then called Rae over, took a seat on the inside of the APC troop transport, and then began to make repairs on Rae to undo the damage they had taken in the last fight.