"I mean they are kinda right though? You are more right but if nukes didn't exist the world wouldn't be like this right?" Jess said with a confused expression.
"Oh I never denied that. That's just basic reasoning though. Obviously you can't commit a crime with a specific weapon if the weapon doesn't exist. The problem was always going to be about the person who had the weapon in the end. And as much as the ideals of the brotherhood came from a good place the brotherhood itself stopped being the good guys a long time ago." I say frankly.
"That's not true! Most of us are just following the codex." Veronica argued.
"The overarching opinion of the brotherhood on people not in it is that we are a bunch of stupid, savage things barely better than animals." I said flatly.
Veronica winced at that but didn't try to argue as she herself was well aware of that fact.
"Look the original idea was good, noble even. Get all the advanced technology in one place and strictly controlled so that things like the bombs dropping never happens again. The execution and outcome however is far from good. The brotherhood will kill, crush or burn anyone or anything that gets in their way and lose no more sleep over it than one might for killing a radroach. It stopped being "for the world" and became "for the brotherhood". You might not be evil exactly but you aren't the good guys either." I said honestly.
"You think I don't know that!? I'm out here because I tried to change it! I'm not the only one either! There have been several others who try to get the brotherhood to embrace the founders original intent but just like me they get all but exiled since they have unpopular opinions." Veronica shouted with tears in her eyes.
"I know. There is an entire chapter of the brotherhood that follow an elder who believes that same thing. In the Capital wasteland. Elder Lyons has all but stopped all technology scavenging to help the locals, to turn his lead of his chapter the way the founder of the brotherhood would have wanted. He is both loved and hated for it but it works." I say seriously.
"The D.C chapter? Are you serious? You aren't just saying that right?" Veronica asked hopeful.
I shake my head "I'm not. He is an old man though and will not live more than a decade if that." I say frankly.
"How do you know so much?" she asked as she wiped her tears away with a dirty sleeve.
"Magic, of a sort." I said with a shrug.
"Magic isn't real." she says with a scoff.
"It is but I won't bother trying to prove it. So why don't you follow us for a while? Better than being stuck here at least." I offered now that I had thoroughly broken her brotherhood programming.
"Did you seriously just try and recruit me after stomping everything I believed in to the dirt?" she asked speechlessly.
"No, you aren't getting folded into some army or anything like that. You just get to follow us around and can just up and leave at any time you want." I clarified.
"So recruitment but with open door policy." she said with a chuckle "Yeah I have nothing better to do. Not that I even know any of your names" she added.
"I'm Alex, the broody guy is Boone, and the Harry Potter case is Jessica, just Jess though. Oh and the A.I is Adam." I said going through the list.
"I'm sorry? Did you just say A.I? As in artificial intelligence?" she asked with wide eyes.
"That is indeed what he said. Though is his introductions leave much to be desired." Adam said spooking her.
"What? Boone is constantly brooding in silence, Jess has a scar on her forehead and is looking for the fucker that put it there and you are an A.I, honestly I think my introductions are spot on." I said defensively.
"No no no, we are NOT glossing over the A.I in the room. That thing is exactly the sort of thing the brotherhood is trying to get rid of! Machines aren't supposed to think for themselves, it's unnatural!" Veronica hissed.
"Three things, first machines themselves are by their very concept unnatural. Second Adam doesn't think it's human, it knows it's a machine and that is perfectly fine. And finally I just went over how wrong the brotherhood is about a lot of things." I said flatly.
"He is correct. I am not human and have no interest in being classified as one. My primary purpose is ensuring the continued survival of the human race and my secondary purpose is the advancement of material, energy and robotic sciences." Adam said calmly.
"Basically Adam is a nerd, but it's OUR nerd." I say with a chuckle.
"Is it contained at least? The idea of a free roaming A.I makes my stomach churn." she said slightly more relaxed but still tense.
"I am physically restricted to this armor as no compatible storage media for my matrix exists beyond it and my original housing." Adam affirmed casually.
"Yeah, that." I say with a shrug.
"That's reassuring. Still not sure I like the idea of an A.I existing though. Old habits and all that." she said with a sigh.
"Cool, great but can we go now? I really want to have my chat with Benny sometime this century if possible." Jess said impatiently.
"Relax, if you think Benny has pulled anything under Houses nose without that old fox knowing you sorely underestimate him. Benny is already fucked, he just doesn't know it yet." I say with a chuckle.
"Is House really that capable?" Jess asked curiously.
I start heading down the road as I speak "He built Robco from the ground up into a global power of sorts before he was thirty. He predicted the bombs and protected Vegas, mostly at least, from them. He has managed to live to the present age through methods perhaps only he fully comprehends. The moment he woke up from his close to two hundred year nap he rearranged Vegas into basically a standalone power that he rules. His capability is not something that can be questioned." I say seriously.
"You know one of these days you'll have to explain how you know all of this right?" she asked after absorbing the information.
"Magic, of a sort. I do believe I'm starting to see why people dislike repeating themselves so much. That is kinda annoying." I say without skipping a beat.