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(BUS)Chapter 100: R&D
🕑 Added 2025-06-24 14:31:25 +0000 UTC"Ha~ now that was a workout." I said with a grin as I let out a deep breath to relax my body from it's high intensity state.
"I'm glad you are on our side. That had to be an armies worth of bodies you dropped right?" Lil asked and I nodded.
"Show kill count!" I commanded the sim room and a tally sheet showed up in mid air with the record of all of this runs kills.
"Over two thousand kills, fuck man your powers really are unfair." Mordy said with a slightly envious tone.
"Given enough time and prey absolutely. The key here being the need for those two things being available. My power is active and not passive so I don't just grow stronger by sitting on my ass doing nothing." I said with a shrug.
"Still just look at the sheer difference between the you now and the you when we met. Back then you were a better fighter than all of us but not to the point of being totally beyond our reach. Now though? We are all far behind you whether in skill or survivability." Roland said with a mix of envy and self depreciation.
"Ever heard the phrase "comparisons are a poison"? While I might be more awesome than all of you that doesn't change the fact all of you are badasses as well. Lil can fucking teleport, Brick is a juggernaut that can burst heads like watermelons, Mordy has Bloodwing and is an extremely good shot with a sniper. And you Roland have all the skill and discipline of a soldier but ambition and a conscious that would have likely made you the leader of this little group had I not been here. I'm awesome but don't go selling yourselves short, so are you." I said with a grin as I held out my arm for a fist bump.
Brick was the first to bring it in with a grin of his own and Mordy came next followed by Lil and finally Roland. With that done and over with we all chose to chill out for a bit. Brick and Mordy played air hockey, Roland and I played chess with the board I made with my crafting thing and Lil lounged in a chair while reading the stuff I sent her on her powers that I found on Athenas.-
Roland was actually not too far behind me in terms of chess either as he was really good at seeing the overall picture and making plans for it as a result. It kept me on my toes as I got caught off guard a few times by a series of moves that looked unconnected but formed a plan that left me at a disadvantage. Admittedly he was actually a bad match for me as forward planning wasn't exactly my strong suit. I was more of a "now" kinda guy though I did have some future plans already.-
Hell even my plans for my own corporation were still in the developmental stages since Atlas hadn't quite fallen just yet. It was inevitable since the corporation was only surviving on the existence of a single man and the idea they MIGHT get the vault here on Pandora. If they succeeded and somehow managed to kill the vault monster as well as loot the vault it would likely extend the lifespan of the company quite a bit but not nearly as long as it would have if the company weren't run by nepotism and incompetency.-
Not that that scenario will happen with me here but the idea still stood. With Jakobs backing me I just needed to wait for the company to start hitting the bottom of it's entire existence and on the verge of collapse just to be swept up by yours truly. Anyways Roland won a few matches, drew even on others and lost slightly more than he won. While we relaxed my small collection of Claptrap units had been busy Cleaning and sorting our loot from the lance as was the job I gave them. While most of the bots were considered useless by many I saw the value in them so long as a few small flaws were taken out.-
For starters I swapped out the clamps of the robots for three fingered hands so they could grab and use tools and objects better. Next I upgraded their movement capabilities so they could go up stairs which they couldn't before, for some fucking reason. The final touch was slightly reprogramming the things to be less nervous without totally removing that part of their personality matrixes. Thanks to this the efficiency of the units in my employ skyrocketed and this task was being done properly.-
I hadn't modified them for combat however as I had discovered that without being so nervous their personalities took on a more egotistical edge that didn't bode well for loyalty if they could also fight. As far as noncombat minions go though they were great as they got shit done after these changes. If they weren't likely to get shot on principle I might even have let them handle the refiners outside New haven. My friends thought they were still annoying little shits but I found it tolerable enough even if indeed obnoxious. I hadn't even bothered offering to sell the loot but just straight up paid my friends for their share.-
All of this Atlas tech was prime study material for when I took over the company and rebranded it in my image. Once I got bored with playing chess that was precisely what the fuck I did too, study it. The guns weren't anything special as like advertised they were decent at everything but not exceptional at anything. The few elemental weapons amongst the looted weapons held this trait as well which ironically actually made them better than the non-elemental versions. The shields were near useless to study though as only a few were actually Atlas brand with the rest being from standard shield suppliers like Anshin or Pangolin.-
'Ah! I could always go the route of paired gear like my gun and shield for my company. It's new and would really make my brand pop as something special!' I thought with a brief pause as the lack of Atlas shields perked my brain up with inspiration.
The trick to this idea though was figuring out how to not only copy the pairing method of my gun and shield but ALSO recreating it in such a way it could be mass produced at a decently cheap price.-
Shelving that idea for now I moved on to studying the armors I got from the lance and I had to admit they were pretty on brand for Atlas in that they had no real weaknesses but also no exceptional points either. The materials could be better, the inbuilt features could be improved and there was a ridiculous amount of room for modification that had been sorely ignored as a sales point. Admittedly the company didn't actively sell it's armors so that was somewhat understandable. But they still paid their troops and could have used this feature to get their troops to give them back that money to improve their gear in a virtuous cycle of improvement and profit.-
If they did it right not only would they not lose money but their military prowess would be much higher as their own troops paid to modify their equipment to better serve their roles. Medical soldiers armors could have inbuilt medicine dispensers for rapid deployment, engineers could have tool slots, things like this. So long as the general shape of the armor wasn't changed during these modification the soldiers company would still be recognizable so that wouldn't even be an issue either.-
The armors all had some features that made their wearers able to function in most environments such as an inbuilt air filtration unit over the mouth, HUD connectivity in the eye area, corrosion resistance to a minor degree and even bullet resistant cod pieces since getting shot in the dick is something to worry about. All in all the armors were decent for general use but needed some serious TLC and redesigns to be great. The helmet shape for example actually made the head MORE of a target with it's bulky angular aesthetic.
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Alexander Drake
Lifeforce:443,074
Integrated Traits: [Gun mastery-Rare grade]X3, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Lesser dragon breath-Epic grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade]X3, [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade],
Stored traits:
Comments
Christian Jeffress
Thanks for the enjoyable chapter
