"Seventy percent is ridiculous!" Jess said in disbelief.
Boone also looked like he found the idea impossible or at the very least close to it.
"Seventy percent is merely based off the information available to me. I theorize the actual percentage is likely quite a bit higher." Adam said calmly.
"Adam, shut your fucking mouth." I said as my voice dropped to a low timbre.
"Why? All my calculations indicate that you will tell them eventually anyways." Adam asked confused.
"The key point here is IF I decide to share it's MY choice. Not because the A.I hitching a ride with me decided it didn't care about propriety. Get it?" I said seriously annoyed.
"I overstepped, I apologize." Adam said sounding sincere enough.
"You were trying to help which is the only reason I'm letting this go. Do it again and you'll find me a lot less forgiving." I say firmly.
"We aren't just going to act like we didn't hear that. What, exactly, are you hiding from us?" Jess demanded.
"I'm not sharing. All you need to understand is that the tin can was referring to my trump card. If it becomes important or I decide you should know i'll tell you. Until then, drop it and leave it alone." I say firmly.
"No! It's obviously important or.....!" she started but Boone grabbed her shoulder to stop her.
"Let it go. Everyone is allowed their secrets." he said and the woman looked like she might ignore that advice for a moment before deflating.
"Fine." she muttered reluctantly.
We moved in silence to the launch control room after that. No one wanted to be the first to speak. To break this heavy air that had settled over the group. I could only sigh and mentally curse at Adam for making this mess. -
When we reached the lab area the ghouls had fled from the Nightkin to I finally broke the silence.
"None of this has an owner once the ghouls are gone in a bit. Gather what's valuable in one place so I can pack it away. Leave nothing for anyone after us." I said casually as I started grabbing and packing away the items scattered all around.
Chems, plasma rifles, microfusion cells, anything of value in the wasteland was grabbed and stuffed into my inventory.-
"Not a bad haul, at least a couple thousand caps if we are dealt fairly." Boone commented as I was packing away the loot.
"Yep, that's the idea. Upgrades, ammo and maintenance takes caps so no opportunity for profit should be missed." I said in agreement.
"How can you both act like nothing happened? We argued!" Jess cut in confused and upset.
"People have disagreements. It happens. It's only a problem when someone takes it too far or won't let it go like they should." I said calmly.
Boone nodded "A functional group rarely agrees one hundred percent of the time." he said flatly.
It was funny how she opened her mouth to argue before closing it when she understood that he was right. Yes we argued. Yes it spoiled all our moods. Didn't mean it was actually a problem. -
With that cleared away we finally moved to the launch control center. It wasn't anything impressive. a narrow overlooking room with a single complex terminal that controlled the launching of the rockets.
"The launch trajectories are wrong." Adam said as I reached for the button that would start the launch.
"Can you fix it?" I asked calmly.
"I can." Adam replied.
"Then do it." I said as I relaxed my body.
Normally going that limp would cause you to ragdoll to the ground but the armors structure held me in place and began to move my arms and fingers. A few dials were turned and a lever was adjusted by movements that didn't belong to me before the armors control was returned to me.
"Done." Adam said.
With that I finally pushed the button and this old music began to play and chuckled.
"Ride of the Valkyries is it? I bet they don't even understand what this music was usually played for." I say amused.
"It's a war song." Boone said and I nodded.
We watched as the large shutters of the dome with the rockets in it opened fully and the three rockets loudly ignited their thrusters and awkwardly shot off into the sky with one even swerving slightly before correcting it's flight path to join the other two.
"Ghouls have to breathe, eat and drink to survive right?" Adam asked curiously.
"It can be drawn out a lot longer than humanly possible if they have a radiation rich environment but yes." I replied a little confused why it wanted to know that.
"Then those ghouls are as you would put it, fucked." Adam said making me blink in surprise.
"I'm sorry what?" I asked confused.
"The telemetry data on the console, it's primed to send them to the asteroid belt. Even if they successfully make the trip they will die from a lack of breathable air, food and water." Adam said seriously.
"Huh? Welp that sucks for them. But to be fair they WERE part of a cult and those have a notorious habit of commiting mass suicide so really this is rather par for the course." I say with a grin.
"That's horrible! Is there anyway to change their course from here?" Jess asked hopefully.
"Negative, each ship is designed to receive the data from this console on at the point of launch before all control is handed over to the onboard computers." Adam said cutting that hope down immediately.
"So we just helped a bunch of people kill themselves?" she asked pale and clearly not okay with that.
"No. We sent them on their way but the trip planning was entirely their doing. The fact none of them seemed to think beyond that good shit Jason was giving them is entirely on them. Cults are always trouble. Except the cult of the grey cat, them's good people." I say seriously.
"Cult of the grey cat?" Boone asked with an expression that said he thought I was bullshitting.
"Yep, they believe that theres this immortal grey cat wandering around helping people by manipulating events subtly. They don't do the Kool-Aid or murder like most cults but rather make a point of being good people and offering secret helping hands to anyone in need. Money on the ground, food on a seat next to you, that sort of thing. Real wholesome vibe." I said grinning.