We settled into a loose circle as we ate, some of my soldiers leaning against our camels, while others found empty crates or boxes to sit on and dragged them over to our corner. Once we were seated and eating, most of the conversation was focused on the food itself, talking about what sort of cheese the city's creations tasted like, or what meat the jerky was made from. The place Carlos had bought it from advertised that it wasn't bug or rat, but did not specify further. It probably wasn't brahmin meat, considering how difficult it was to raise one. They did probably occasionally slaughter them for food, but I had a feeling the meat would be much more expensive.
I imagine steaks were a premium product, while getting some radstag meat was much more common.
Eventually, the conversation drifted to what else the exploration group had been up to.
"We managed to find a place we could sleep, an inn along the back deck," Carlos revealed. "They basically converted the sleeping quarters into a place for visiting groups. It's cheap, mostly clean, and kept cool with ventings and fans, but it's not glamorous."
"Better than sleeping out here on the ground?" I asked, kicking a nearby rock lightly.
"Comfort-wise, yeah. Space-wise, no. The beds are stacked up like sardines in a can," he explained. "Still, I would prefer to stay at the inn, if that means anything."
"How much is going to run me?"
"Four hundred caps for twelve beds, that comes with a water ration."
"We only need nine," Johnson pointed out. "Three people on watch, then can tag in the next group and take their space."
"Probably three hundred then," I commented, Carlos nodding in confirmation. "Alright, sounds like a good plan. We can head there when it starts to get late, but we should probably reserve spots now. Carlos, can you-"
"Excuse me?" A voice came from behind me.
I turned to find three lab-coat-wearing scientists standing there. One I could just barely identify as Madison Li, one of only a few characters that existed in both Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. I did not recognize the other two scientists.
"Hello," I said with a smile, passing Carlos the last of my lunch and standing quickly. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, my name is Dr. Li," She said, taking my hand as I reached out, giving it a single, jerky shake with a short, quick movement. "I am the head of the Rivet City Science Division."
"Hello, Dr. Li," I said with a nod. "I'm General Connor."
"It's nice to meet you, General," she responded with a nod. "There is a rather interesting rumor going around that your group has supplied the medical facilities around the major with new pristine supplies. Is that true?"
I looked at her for a moment, wondering if this was about to be an issue. I knew in the game the science team at Rivet City was responsible for a good portion of the city's infrastructure, like water, and a portion of the city's fresh food. If this was about to become a pissing match about cutting them out of providing medical supplies, I would not be happy.
"That's true," I responded, nodding in confirmation. "Why? We are out of supplies, unfortunately."
"We aren't looking for medical supplies," she assured me. "Could convince you to come in and see our operation? We would like to discuss potential business."
"I suppose we could do that," I agreed with a nod. "Give me a moment to talk with my men.
"Very well."
I turned and looked back to face my people, glancing at Carlos, who had leaned in slightly.
"Alright, Johnson, Kelsey, and I are going to head with Dr. Li to see their lab and discuss business," I repeated, turning slightly to address Carlos. "Switch out your groups, make sure everyone gets a chance to see the sights. Do me a favor and go make our reservations. I don't want to show up and not have enough beds because we waited too long. Then if you're up for it, go take a look at the deck, I'm interested to know what's up there."
Carlos nodded, and after a few more minutes of talking, Johnson, Kelsey, and I were making our way to the back end of the ship, where Doctor Li's lab was. Sarah had also decided to tag along, though Doctor Li didn't look ecstatic about that. It was clear she recognized their group at least, and didn't have the most positive feelings about them.
It took a bit of walking to get to the lab, but when we arrived, I was honestly surprised. In the game, the lab had barely been more than a slightly larger room, with more junk related to city upkeep than actual science. Here, that was not the case.
The labs were actually a few separate spaces, all of them cleaned and organized, with walls, ceiling, and floors that were much better maintained than the rest of the ship. There was rust peaking through in some places, especially above people's heads, but it was clearly an effort to keep the place clean of contaminants.
There was also legitimate lab equipment stationed around the various areas, rather than a few beakers, some test tubes, and a few microfilm viewers that Bethesda liked to use to beef up locations that were supposed to be techy or advanced.
Seriously, it was hard to look at the game the same way once you realized what they were, since Bethesda had put them everywhere.
The real set was actually pretty advanced for a wateland lab, and I had no problem believing that they were doing some solid science, even if it was likely mostly focused on finding out how things from the old world worked.
"Impressive," I commented as we were led through the area, attracting a few curious glances. "It's rare to see such a well-maintained and complete setup like this outside of vaults."
"Thank you," Doctor Li said with a nod. "It took some time to get like this, and a lot of… discussions with the rest of the Rivet City council. Thankfully, with our greenhouses and hydroponics facilities growing fresh, almost completely rad-free food, our budget is stable."
"I get the feeling that's going to be a good thing for me as well," I said, smirking when the doctor didn't deny my statement.
Eventually, we were led into a meeting room, one with a glass wall that could see out into a good chunk of the lab. We sat down, and Doctor Li leaned forward.
"As I said before, we aren't looking to buy medical supplies, we have plenty of our own," she assured me, gesturing out towards the lab beyond the glass. "We are much more interested in the concept of pristine lab equipment and supplies."
For a moment, I frowned, trying to figure out what she meant. We did have access to some things, like basic PPE for doctors, and some basic tools like scissors. Then I realized what she was thinking. After seeing such pristine examples of drugs that hadn't been produced in hundreds of years, she understandably assumed we would have setups just as pristine.
"While I am proud of what we have accomplished, scavenging through the ruins of DC, the fact of the matter is that we lack consistent equipment," She revealed with a frown. "What we have is scavenged and repaired, sometimes multiple times. While it… functions, most of the time, we often lose days of work while waiting for repairs. The loss in samples is even worse. On top of that, it is difficult to instill any precision into devices cobbled together from three separate pieces of equipment, all of which are just under two hundred years old."
"Unfortunately, our shipments of supplies do not include large-scale equipment," I revealed with a wince. "We can provide basic supplies, basic tools, gloves, really anything an army medic would have access to to maintain a unit. We also don't get a direct say in what sort of tradable goods we receive beyond simple medical supplies."
"I'm sensing a 'but' here," one of Doctor Li's associates said, prompting me to make a so-so gesture with my hand.
"More like a maybe. We have been doing very well for ourselves, this trip in particular," I explained happily. "We could, hypothetically, put in a request back home for more advanced equipment, but it would likely take some time."
This was obviously a lie, one designed to cover up any upgrades I made to the Medbay. While we didn't have direct upgrades to the building yet, I was almost positive that it was because it was left over from when we relied on quests for rewards. With any luck, once I unlocked the ability to make medbays, I would be able to upgrade the one we had, like I could upgrade the barracks or the armory.
I was hoping medbays would be coming up soon as part of the construction yard upgrades, but because I had no way to guarantee that, I couldn't promise anything.
"How likely is it that your headquarters would acquiesce to your request?"
"At first, small. But I have a few connections, I could probably make it happen eventually," I said, projecting just a hint of confidence. "When that happens, we will figure out just how to transport the tech you want into your hands."
"For a price, of course," Li added.
"Of course, though it likely won't be as expensive as you might guess," I assured her. "One of our primary purposes here is to improve the quality of life for the area we settle. Part of that is saturating the market with affordable, high-quality medicine. But making sure that local scientists have access to what they need to grow and do more research fits as well."
"That… is surprisingly forward thinking," Doctor Li said, before looking over at Sarah with a much less amicable face. "If only certain other groups felt that way."
Sarah, as if expecting the shot across the bow, immediately started to rise to the challenge. Before either of them could start what was likely a very old argument, I spoke up.
"While I'm sure that Sentinel Lyons is perfectly capable of defending herself, I would ask that you don't antagonize her," I said with a frown. "The Brotherhood was very kind in providing us with an escort and prevented us from running face-first into supermutant forces."
"You must not be familiar with their mission then," she responded, shaking her head. "They hoard technology, keeping it from helping the rest of us."
"I may not agree with every aspect of their mission, but without them, the super mutants would have overrun the Capital Wasteland years ago," I countered. "And while it is unfortunate that they keep some tech under lock and key, can you imagine what it would be like for groups of raiders to be walking around with power armor? Or armed with laser rifles? Or perhaps a Talon Company with access to nuclear artillery?"
Just the thought of that made the woman pale, her eyes going wide. Beside her, her peers looked equally disquieted by the concept.
"I'm not saying you have to love it, like I said, I have some reservations about their mission, especially other chapters, but you should at least be able to be civil with them, considering it is very likely that you owe them your life."
While she didn't know I knew this, Madison Li absolutely owed the BOS her life, given that they kept Project Purity safe for a considerable amount of time during their first attempt to get the project underway.
As for so staunchly defending the BOS, it was part practicality, part belief. The Brotherhood of the Capital Wasteland was, at this point, innocent of the crimes of both other chapters and of its future iterations. Plus, they served a vital role in keeping the region stable, something we were not equipped to really help with at this point.
I was hoping that would change soon, but only time would tell.
To be honest, I didn't know what I was going to do about the Brotherhood's future. They had an incoming split scheduled pretty soon, with the Outcasts showing off their stupidity and brainwashing by leaving both groups effectively crippled, since neither side was really strong enough to do anything once they separated.
Not to mention the catastrophe they turned into by the time Fallout 4 kicked around.
"I… I suppose I didn't think of it quite that way," Doctor Li admitted, looking back to Sarah. "I apologize. I may not agree with h- protecting technology the way your group does, but I do appreciate the fact that you have put your lives on the line to combat the super mutants."
"Apology accepted," Sarah said, before continuing. "I won't pretend that I disagree with our mission to protect and secure old-world tech, but I… do understand the negative reactions from some of the more unfortunate examples."
The admission shocked Li, who clearly hadn't expected the daughter of Elder Lyons to admit she saw where she was coming from.
"W-well, I appreciate it," She responded after she recovered. For a moment, she seemed lost before seeming to remember what the meeting was about and focusing back on me. "So… is there no way I could get an estimate of how long it will be until you can provide this equipment?"
"Any estimate I gave would essentially be made up," I explained,m shaking my head. "We could return to base and learn that my commanders have already agreed to expand our goods significantly. Or they may ignore my requests completely, though that is unlikely. That said…"
I gestured to Kelsey, the medic sitting up straight as I did.
"Kelsey here is one of the medics with our team, she should be able to give you a much better idea of what we have access to now," I explained. "Kelsey, you mind answering a few questions?"
"Of course," She said with a nod. "We should probably start with the obvious, that being sterile gloves…"
I lean back in my chair, watching Kelsey discuss available resources that we could provide with much more confidence in what we had to offer than I had. I turned to look at Sarah after a moment or two, to find she was already looking at me. She gave me an appreciative nod before turning back to the conversation.
Eventually, after we got a good idea of what the scientists needed, we agreed to include a certain amount of goods in our next delivery for them. Doctor Li seemed happy with the progress, though it was clear she had been hoping for more.
When the conversation was over, Doctor Li escorted us out, and we shook hands before leaving, heading out towards the front end of the city ship.