The treads of the many armored vehicles that made up our fully loaded convoy churned loudly as we navigated the wide tunnels of the mine and before long, we eventually popped out on the surface and entered the long, abandoned ruins of the Adaven. As soon as we made it to the surface world once more, I took it upon myself to scan the surroundings as per usual.
I ran my vision back and forth over the surroundings, intending to spot every danger and possible threat that lay in the area. However, regardless of how much I searched, all I found was a wee bit of mutant activity around the deteriorating mining town, all of which were intelligent enough to stay away and keep their distance the instant they caught sight of our large numbers passing through.
Watching the low level mutated wildlife beat a hasty retreat for cover, I let them be and directed the train of robots and vehicles through the dilapidated structures and poorly maintained streets and embarked on the route we were required to take to reach our home here in the wastes. A couple of minutes later, we came off the mountainous area and when we did; I activated my increasingly powerful stealth field in full and had us begin speeding up since my robots and I had already run this route many a time at this point.
Used to the route because of a combination of my many trips back and forth in this life and my previous one the convoy sped up to an acceptable speed of 35 miles per hour and maintained this rate of travel for the entire journey minus the occasional slow down for turns. After half an hour of hauling ass through the arid landscape, we found ourselves pulling up to the Cornerstone Stronghold walls that had grown nearly another 10 feet in the several hours we were away.
"Weren't those walls half the size when we left?" Mary asked, not believing the sight beyond the cabin's interior.
"They were, but those are Dom's robots for you." Rei replied nonchalantly from her comfy position on my left side, not surprised in the least.
"Nn, they're incredibly fast. You give them a project and they'll have it taken care of in no time." Alice seconded from my other side in her usual bubbly, upbeat tone of voice.
I'm sure she'll get used to things... At some point.
While Mary continued to watch the army of robots scurry about the ongoing construction project, that was going up faster and faster as more and more workers came off the production line, we rolled past one of the four entry points in the partially constructed perimeter wall and proceeded right into the robot manufacturing plant turned fortress and alighted from the vehicle.
"Thanks Dom." The wild flower said once I helped her down from the armored vehicle.
"No problem."
As the many robots under the control of my will were streaming over and starting to unload the furniture and supplies we brought with us from Undercity 7, Alice asked. "So, are you taking Mary back now, or..."
"I was thinking about it but I'm sure you three have more to discuss regarding the decorations and where you want the furniture to go, so why don't we head up and get that out of the way before I take off to Crystal Springs with Mary."
The cowgirl looked a wee bit concerned, so she decided to make her thoughts known. "Are you sure you don't want to take me home before it gets any darker? The wasteland isn't exactly the safest place at night... Not to say that it was safe during the day, either, but it gets much worse at night, you know."
"It makes no difference if it's light or dark for me, since my eyes will work the same, regardless, so you might as well enjoy yourself. Unless, of course, you think the three of you can wait till tomorrow." I stated.
The danger factor does increase at night, but I should be able to handle it no problem.
The three young women glanced at each other for a moment and appeared to communicate something amongst themselves silently before unanimously coming to a decision somehow. "We can head out later." The firecracker answered for the three of them.
"Sure." I replied simply.
Following that brief conversation, gramps and the boys watched on as the three young women dragged me upstairs excitedly, eager to begin decorating our place and turning it into a real full-blown home.
…
Their makeover of the place went on for a decent while, but they eventually got it all wrapped up within an hour, give or take a couple of minutes… With the robots' assistance, of course.
"We're done, Dom. Are you ready to go?" Mary, the pretty cowgirl, asked in that pleasant southern accent of hers as she came strolling into the living room with my two romantic partners.
"Ready when you are."
"Alright, let's go then."
Before we could get out the door, the firecracker turned to her counterparts, Alice and Rei, and said goodbye. "Have a good rest of the night. I'll see you girls tomorrow."
I thought Alice would have just responded with a simple goodbye, but she suddenly approached the southern belle and wrapped her up in a hug. "See you tomorrow, Mary. Stay safe out there."
"Yea, see you tomorrow, Mary. Make sure to keep this guy from finding any more trouble on your way home." The busty Asian beauty followed up after my wife, along with a similar show of affection.
"I'll try my darndest." The wildflower said with a mock salute, playing along before the three girls broke out collectively in giggles.
With the goodbyes taken care of, I exited the residence I shared with my two romantic partners that was soon to become three if things kept progressing in the direction they were going and began proceeding down the hall in the direction of the elevator with the rowdy lass.
I expected the two vixens to give me a goodbye kiss or something on my way out like they typically would, but nothing, huh? I wonder why that is... Alice and Rei are getting along exceptionally well with Mary, so maybe they feel bad about showing too much physical affection in front of her now that they've gotten acquainted with her, hmm... Yeah, I could see it being that. However, I won't know for sure unless I ask them, so I'll pose the question when I return home.
Putting one foot in front of the other, the two of us eventually reached my bike on the ground floor below, although only after a short elevator ride from the top level. Keen to get this whole trip over with and hopefully get laid tonight, I was about to straddle the jet black armored chopper, but my thoughts went to that hostile element I discovered several hours ago in Crystal Springs.
I should really bring along a few robots to protect Mary and her family, seeing how there's an unknown hostile element hiding in that wasteland settlement of theirs... Yeah, I don't particularly feel too secure leaving someone I just started developing feelings for in a place with unknown elements, especially when I won't be there to handle them. So having a few of my robots that are basically an extension of myself stationed there will go a long way if anything were to go down.
Unwilling to leave this wild young woman in a location with unpredictable variables, I had Mary take her seat on the bike while I arranged a small protective squad of robots. It took several minutes to get a squad together and as soon as I did; I transferred them to my item box and headed on back to my waiting companion.
I'm probably being a bit overly paranoid, however I'd rather be prepared for the worst than get caught with my pants down.
Finished stowing away a dozen Multibots, 2 Crusaders, and 2 Defenders, I hopped on the bike and the moment the wild flower wrapped her arms around my waist tightly; I drove the out of one of the many open loading bay doors, sped past the increasingly numerous automated constructs and machines, and peeled out of the east entry point in the partially built perimeter wall.
As we started the not so short journey back to the firecracker's hometown, I flipped on my stealth field to prevent us from being spotted and took off down the broken, cracked asphalt right as dusk began taking over the dry Nevada landscape.
There are a plethora of mutants that become active at night, many of which are of the life-threatening variety... Even to someone like me. Therefore, it would be best to get this trip over and done with as fast as I possibly can, or at least before I have a run in with something I'd prefer to handle alone. It would definitely suck to get caught up in a fight with a creature like a Desert Wanderer when I have an unarmored lass to worry about protecting.
Recalling the terrible experiences I've had when dealing with those huge spine covered spiders back in my old world, that were literally known as the grim reapers of the spider world because of their extreme lethality and the distinct skull pattern on their abdomens', I continued my thoughts.
The chances of encountering a creature on that level is rather low for these parts if my extensive game knowledge is anything to go by, but it's not exactly zero, so I'd rather not chance it. I mean, if Mary got even a drop of that deadly arachnid's venom in her system, she's as good as dead... I've taken quite a liken to her in the short span of time I spent with her so I'd rather not chance things if I can help it.
Acutely aware of the problems that come along with it getting darker and darker and what threats become even more active during this time of day, I put more gas into the throttle and flew across the wasteland, determined to reach our destination before anything irreversible could occur.
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