[Last Hope] 20 – The Meeting, Part 2

[A/N: I forgot to mention, the most recent perk the MC chose is one of the basic perks called [Awareness] from Fallout 4. Instead of giving her VATS information, it will essentially just buff her Perception by 1 point, making her more observant of her surroundings. I also reviewed the skills again, condensing them where possible and reducing the total number to twenty-six.

[10] Combat: Bladed Weapons (0), Blunt Weapons (0), Throwing Weapons (0), Pole Arms (0), Small Guns (0), Big Guns (0), Energy Weapons (0), Explosives (0), Unarmed (0), and Guerrilla Tactics (0)

[10] Technical: Engineering (25), Robotics (40), Biology (45), Computers (100), Tailoring (0), Medicine (0), Roguery (0), Repair (15), Speech (0), and Steward (0)

[6] Survival: Foraging (0), Butchering (0), Cooking(0), Trapping(0), Farming(0), and Husbandry(0)

I also went through all 6,000 words of my notes for this fic and revised them, streamlining the content to make it easier to access and organize in the future.]

[2,334 Words]

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[The Specter: Now, I believe it's time we had a nice and civil talk.] I began after placing a five-minute mute on Dr. Zimmer, the head of the SRB and the most paranoid bastard after Shaun in the entire Institute. I personally believed that while Shaun was responsible for the majority of the wrongs done by the Institute, Dr. Zimmer had to be accountable for a large portion of the other horrible acts the Institute had committed over the last couple of decades while he was in charge.

In this little chatroom, I'd say Dr. Zimmer had my greatest displeasure of all those who were gathered this night, followed right by Virgil due to his sheer incompetence as the lead for the F.E.V. research, and lack of any effort he's made with his research despite the tremendous amount of resources Shaun poured into the Project.

[The Specter: While I am sure you all recognize me as the person who has caused all this trouble in the Institute for the last week, and I realize all of you, there's a special guest here today that I wanted to introduce you all to, and suspect several of you are already acquainted with this person, Head Scintist Virgil, of the Institute's F.E.V. Project], I introduced the timid and arrogant so called 'Doctor' Virgil directly into the limlight of the chat.

[Director Binet: I do not believe I am acquainted with this man, nor do I know what this F.E.V. Project is. May I have some clarification?]

[The Specter: Gladly! Attached to this message are various files and documents related to the Project, F.E.V., the Project's team, and the breakthroughs they've achieved with the Project over the last several decades. It's a must-read, I will say!] I answered Binet, sending him all the related information and data, including the rather sparse and empty file listing the Project's accomplishments and the resources they had used or wasted over the years, while pulling up my own data to look along and see what exactly he'd see while running my own special little program to organize through all of the information and display it in a far better manner on my screen.

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Project: The Forced Evolutionary Virus | Project Start Date: 2079

Team Lead: Brian Virgil (In Team Lead Position Since 2263) (Current Year: 2268) 

Staff: Four Biologists, One Handyman, One Robotics Specialist, One Engineer, and Six Mark Two Synthetics.

Daily Project Expenditures: Sixteen Lab-Grade Energy Vouchers and Eight Food Vouchers.

Project Accomplishments: [Potent Aerial Viral Strain of F.E.V.]

Project Casualties: Unknown, estimated to be in the tens of thousands across the Commonwealth and beyond.

Project's Effects on the Commonwealth: Thousands of Super Mutants in Downtown Boston, the Coast of Boston, and the Outskirts of Boston

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Glancing at the brief review, I didn't even bother pulling up all the extra data the program had uncovered. This Project alone was responsible for the significant Super Mutant and F.E.V. Hybrid Population found across the Commonwealth. It was solely responsible for the torturous ends of tens of thousands under their cruel F.E.V. experiments that did nothing new but expose random Wastelanders and Institute Personnel on Shaun's shit list to F.E.V., either giving them a gruesome end or turning them into some form of F.E.V. creature.

This Project was the direct result of letting Scientists without any moral or ethical boundaries free rein over chemicals and biocomponents that could fundamentally change the human mind, body, and soul, and twist it into something monstrous. This useless Project has caused irreparable damage to the Institute's image and any hope, if at all, of the Institute becoming anything other than the Boogeyman of the Commonwealth and public enemy number one. That was only with the Supermutants, to say nothing of their practices with the Mark Three Synthetics, which they were actively using to replace people, infiltrate communities, obtain valuable resources, and cause chaos across the Commonwealth.

If it was not obvious before, it should be evident to all those I gathered today just how furious I was at their actions, so much so that I had to use part of my perk, [Bio-Computer], to temporarily relieve my rage and hatred for the current Department Heads of the Institute.

[Director Binet: No, this can't be right. Why would Shaun allow for this Project to continue in the first place?] Binet began to deny the existence of the Project when faced with the extraordinary amount of evidence of its wrongdoing and the countless deaths of the wastelanders above our little underground 'utopia.'

[The Specter: I don't rightly know, however, what I do know is that two of the Directors in this chatroom were and are aware of the Project and have done nothing to stop or prevent it from continuing.] I informed Binet, before highlighting the two Directors who were mindful of the Project: one, Zimmer of the SRB, and the other, Dr. Caroline Biggs, Director of Advanced Systems. The same division is responsible for maintaining, creating, and modifying the equipment used by the Project to keep their F.E.V. experiments frozen in stasis, much like Shaun's parents in Vault 111, through Cryogenic Storage.

That's when Zimmer's mute ran out, and he began sending voice messages into the chatroom in his rage.

"Who are you? How are you doing this? How do you know all of this?!" He demanded, much to my amusement as I muted him once more, this time under the excuse of his failing to keep the conversation civil.

[The Specter: I am the monument dedicated to all of your sins, sins I will make all of you gathered here and the Institute as a whole pay for to get back on track with Uplifting and Redefining Humanity above ground.] I typed, referencing a game series that didn't even exist in this world before, and then continued with another message.

[The Specter: As for how I could do all of this and how I know all of the Institute's secrets, the answer is simple. I'm ahead of you all, especially in computer software, Hardware, and everything in between. The Code Defender technology, which has protected the Institute and its secrets since before the Great War, has been cracked by none other than me. I am in all of your Systems, I can see anything and everything, I can make any changes I wish, and if I so wanted, I could deactivate all of the Ventalation Shafts across the Concourse leading to the surface over night and turn the Concourse into a massive Graveyard], I threatened all of the Directors, deciding to get a bit serious with my threats and warnings if they refused to listen.

[Director Ben: If what they say is true, they could very well use Shaun's administrative access to kill us all before we could even hope to react or respond to the threat, but that brings me to a question that's on my mind: What do you want?], Old Man Ben, the clever man, finally asked the right question.

[The Specter: To get this shit show back on track and redirect the train wreck that is the Institute back on course before it can crash and destroy the whole Commonwealth and maybe even doom the entire surface to a hell even worse than it's experiencing already], I answered, reiterating what I've told them already before.

[Director Ben: How am I supposed to help? I may be the Director of Facilities, but I hold very little power among those you've gathered here today, and I am nothing more than a glorified handyman with far too much responsibility,] Old Man Ben informed me honestly, which gave me a small, sad smile.

[The Specter: Because of all those gathered here, you and one other have been keeping this shit show on track, and I wanted to show my appreciation for keeping us all alive so far, regardless of how a certain Director in this chatroom seems determined to turn the whole world against the Institute and doom us all a live burial], I answered honestly before sharing a few documents to everyone in the chatroom at once.

/========[+]========\

Proposal #1: Construction of the Experimental Fusion Reactor

Proposal Basics: Obtain the Beryllium Agitator from the Mass Fusion Facility in Boston and kickstart the construction of the Experimental Fusion Reactor in the basement of the Concourse.

Potential Benefits: Short-term power needs are met within a week or a month, allowing for expansions and improvements to be made with the Reactor. Gives the Institute the resources it needs for the short-term to pull its head out of its ass.

Potential Drawbacks: Unwanted attention and conflict with local powerful Boston factions: The Railroad, The Gunners, Raider Elements, Supermant Elements, or Miniutemen Remnants.

Proposal's Chance of Success: 90%

Suggestions: Send a team of Coursers with squads of Mark Two Synthetics, followed by a group of experts in protected gear to extract the Agitator. Be done within an hour, in and out. Purchase schematics recently discovered for an improved Fusion Reactor in University Point using Agent: Kellogg.

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Proposal #2: Reestablishment of the Commonwealth Provisional Government

Proposal Basics: Reproduce the establishment of the Commonwealth Provincial Government with all local Boston Settlements, Factions, and Groups of Interest.

Potential Benefits: Boston United and the potential to rebuild above ground in peace and safety.

Potential Drawbacks: Ignored or outright conflict due to the Institute's cultivated image from its past actions.

Proposal's Chance of Success: 50%

Suggestions: Begin Humanitarian Missions using spare Synths and resources, build a good image by helping settlements, rebuilding the Minutemen, clearing out Raider enclaves, Feral Ghoul enclaves, and Super Mutant enclaves. 

\=========+=========/

/========[+]========\

Proposal #3: New Management

Proposal Basics: Elect a new Director for the Institute.

Potential Benefits: Shaun resigning from a position of power and being assigned a suitable position that utilizes his talents.

Potential Drawbacks: Shaun attempts to take control by Force and become a tyrannical head of the Institute, something he has already done. Look at the data on what happened to his opposition in the logs for the F.E.V. human experiments.

Proposal's Chance of Success: 25% 

Suggestions: Do it, or I swear to God, I'll find a way to do it myself, likely in a far more chaotic and stressful situation or method than what has traditionally been done with the election of past Directors, previous to Shaun.

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[The Specter: I honestly suggest you all start with the first Proposal, followed by the third, as soon as possible, with the second only being possible if a decent Director is elected. I recommend Director Ben for his service to the Institute for the last several decades. Now, I'll be heading out in a few moments, so I suggest you all chat with one another and decide what you want to do. However, be warned that the last Proposal is a very real threat, and one I am willing to enforce if you don't get your act together.

Also, in recognition of the services of both Director Ben and Director Binet in their work on keeping the Institute functional despite the incompetent leadership doing its best to drag us all down, I have uploaded even more Software upgrades to the first and second generation synthetics, as well as a potential blueprint to streamline the process of Third Generation Synthetics at an estimated improvement of -14% in resources used. Thank you both for your work, Specter out.] I finished my warning by uploading several files into both the chatroom and the Terminal Network before closing out of the chatroom.

Sighing and not exactly hopeful that they'd listen to my advice, I got to work on establishing a few contingency plans to ensure the Institute got back on track before retiring for the night, while also taking a few additional measures to retrain the access I have over the Concourse, synths, and administrative access before retiring for the night. 

Although I only found out the next day, I had a peaceful night's rest. At the same time, the Directors argued, yelled, and shouted at one another first in the chatroom, then in person in the meeting room just below Shaun's quarters with old age catching up with many of the Directors as they were too stuborn to change their minds or their ways despite the copious amounts of evidence I had given them, shown them, and shared with them.

...

The following morning, I returned to work, this time investing in exploring and potentially even setting up shop in the abandoned section of the Institute's Concourse that leads to the C.I.T. ruins and the surface in hopes of finding a suitable spot to set up a decent workshop, lab, and training room to get up into shape and with my total acess of the Institute's Network Systems, I had no problem in redirecting a particular Courser to assist in my exploritory efforts this afternnon, one X6-88, and erase all data that could have led back to me or the whereabouts of the Courser that afternoon.