By the time we arrived at the connection point, all of us were starting to feel worn out and tired. It wasn't a physical exhaustion, as the sun shining down on us still filled us with the same strange, multifaceted vigor as it usually did now. Instead, with the adrenaline gone and our destination quickly approaching, a mental tiredness began to settle over us.

  We had been on high alert and high tension since we walked out of the connection point almost four hours ago, and now we were beginning to feel the consequences.

  Still, we made it back, and no one was injured, which was enough to push me forward, all the way back home. As we crossed back to the HQ, we made our way to the main hall, where Maxwell was waiting for us.

  "Welcome back!" He called out, waving us closer. "Seems like you were successful. How did it go?"

  "Better than it had any right to," I responded, leaning on the front counter. "Though I think we all have a new appreciation for how fast the Zoomorphs can be. Carlos especially."

  "I would say my days as living bait are behind me, but I won't jinx myself," Carlos said with a smirk, prompting me to roll my eyes.

  "Well, you'll be happy to know that your reward is waiting for you," Maxwell said with a smile, quickly pulling out the same map I used to place the barracks so long ago. "You just need to figure out where it goes."

  Maxwell unrolled the map and anchored each corner, before handing me a small box, this one marked with a red cross. I examined the map for a moment before moving the piece around it, paying attention to the gray area that marked the building's potential growth.

  "What do you guys think?" I asked Carlos and Joseph. "Should I put it next to the barracks, or next to the HQ?"

  "Our medical facilities should be close to the grouping, but beyond that… I'm not sure it matters," Joseph responded with a frown.

  "Keeping it close to the HQ will make defending both together easier," Carlos pointed out.

  I nodded, considering for a few more minutes before eventually placing the facility. The small rectangular piece sat there on the map while Maxwell looked at me.

  "Are you sure, sir?" He asked with no judgment.

  "Yeah, do it."

  "Very well."

  Just as he had with the barracks, Maxwell reached forward and pushed the rectangular piece down into the map, the markings now part of the thick paper. When the piece was gone, Maxwell nodded and started putting away the Map.

  "Shall we investigate our new addition?" He asked as he slid the rolled-up parchment under the front desk. "It should already be waiting for us."

  "Sure, unless any of you guys have something better to do," I said with a smirk, slinging my rifle over my shoulder. "Let's go."

  All four of us rushed from the HQ, stopping just outside the door. Just a few dozen feet away was a small, simple concrete structure, similar to the barracks, if not a bit more sturdy looking. As we approached and entered, we were greeted by an equally simple treatment space. Four beds took up the far end of the room, each one with some elementary monitoring equipment, as well as an empty IV stand.

  It looked like what you might expect from a forward operating base's medical tent. More of a place to stabilize than actually treat, though it would do in a tight pinch. That said, everything was clean and solid, which was so far above the norm in the wasteland that this might as well have been a surgery suite from the greatest hospitals in the world.

  Along the wall closer to the door was storage, most of which was empty. Along the cabinets, crates, and lockers was a wall-mounted chute hatch. As we stepped in, Maxwell made a noise of approval and picked up a folded piece of paper, handing it to me with a smile.

  "I believe this should explain this facility's full function," he said.

  I raised an eyebrow at the suit-wearing man, taking the folded paper and opening it, reading the contents to myself. Most of what it said I already knew from the quest reward description. The building gave me access to a new class of soldier, a combat medic, while also slowly generating medical supplies, including stimpaks. All I had to do was select the items from a computer built into one of the cabinets, which had a complete list of what was available. However, the note went much deeper than that, explaining hidden details that made me even happier to have gotten access to the building.

  First, all medical supplies made by the building were connected to the regeneration or restocking that happened every so often with our kit. While that might like a bad thing, it meant we could sell or hand out everything it generated without worrying about it disappearing on a restock. The range of things the facility could generate was also pretty impressive, but limited to what a combat medic would carry or fundamental medical equipment. So it would have antibiotics, but not the specific treatment for some random disorder. That could change if we upgraded the building enough, but considering I still didn't know how to do that, that might take a while.

  The facility considered the stimpak to be the sort of top-tier item, which was fair, as it treated most injuries. This meant it took the longest to generate at twenty-four hours, one stimpak per day. Just below that, at twenty-three hours, was a full combat medic kit. I recognized a good amount of the, though using those things was a whole other story.

  From there, the facility's capabilities decreased, starting with smaller trauma kits, then kits designed to treat specific conditions, followed by basic first aid bags, and finally individual items. Standard Fallout medical drugs, things like Radaway, Med-X, and Rad-X, were sprinkled throughout that list, all of them on the higher end. All of these could be created and handed out or sold however I wanted to.

  Perhaps the most potent part of the medical supplies generation was that we could feed the facility with scavenged medical supplies and parts. It would then "recycle" them into brand-new, completely clean, and full-potency items. Find a bunch of scalpels and medical tubing? Throw it down the chute and turn it into packs of sterilized gauze and tape. Find some contaminated drugs? Toss it down the chute and turn it into clean and sterile Med-X.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  There were limitations, of course, mainly in the conversion rates. Junk was worth very little, and even a fully functional old stimpak wouldn't be worth a nice new clean one. Still, even at a steep loss, turning any decent amount of junk into clean, easily sellable medical equipment was And not just from a money-making standpoint. We could do some good with this, especially since some of the lower-tier items, meaning the quickest to generate, were training manuals for various levels of combat medic.

  It wasn't the, but it would still help people learn.

  Compared to the medical supplies, the combat medic feature was far simpler. The combat medic would come with all the knowledge a well-trained combat medic would know. They would come armed with a standard soldier's kit, and a recharging combat medic kit, just like the one the facility could generate. They also carried three extra stimpaks, meaning they had a total of four, all set to regenerate with their other gear.

  All in all, this was potentially a huge boon. Medical supplies, especially medical supplies, were in high demand, and being able to supply someone with antibiotics, which the facility could produce in several different types, was a powerful negotiation tool.

  "Joseph, Carlos, go back to HQ and grab some of the medical supplies we found. I seem to remember some questionable Med-X syringes from the Super Mart. Also, grab the used stimpacks from the trash by the front desk, and anything else we grabbed to sell."

  They both nodded and left immediately, heading across the way back to the HQ, while I continued to look through the list. After reading a few smaller items, I noticed one I had missed the first time through.

  "Jesus, this is more broken than I thought," I said, shaking my head. "Take a look at this."

  I turned the computer towards Maxwell, showing him that the facility could generate containers of sterile, distilled water. The containers were sealed and came in a few different sizes, from small sprayers to containers that reminded me of the you could get at the supermarket. Even better, they were relatively low down the list in terms of cost, so the facility could produce four of the large ones in a day.

  "I wonder if that means water is considered a medical product?" I asked, mostly mumbling to myself before turning back to my companion. "Maxwell, grab my water ration, will you?"

  "On it, Sir."

  Maxwell left the medical facility, leaving me alone for just a few minutes. I knew that the water rations we received were the only "real" water the HQ could make. Everything from the sinks and showers was fiat backed to not work in some way, so we couldn't trade or use it for anything outside keeping clean. But we still had a just a short walk away. Some Brahim and a few fifty-five-gallon drums, and we might have just discovered our first infinite money glitch. Part of me doubted it would work like that, but it still needed to be tested.

  I kept poking around the list, looking for anything interesting. Maxwell had only been gone for a minute before Joseph and Carlos returned, the latter carrying a metal crate. I did a quick scan to make sure they hadn't found anything I wanted to keep, before nodding towards the chute.

  "Go ahead and start throwing things in," I said, watching as they both fed the chute the scavenged materials. "Slowly at first, I'm not sure how it will work."

  Carlos nodded, made his way to the chute, and put the metal crate down at his feet. He then grabbed a few things from it, some forceps and an empty stimpak, and dropped them down the chute. A moment passed before a small resource bar appeared at the bottom of the computer. As Carlos continued to feed the chute, it slowly filled, jumping occasionally as he dropped more expensive things down inside.

  I was glad to see that the system kept track, because it meant that if we wanted to save up for bigger purchases, or didn't need anything in particular at the moment, we could still save up for later.

  I debated on what to buy as a probably unnecessary proof of concept, when Maxwell returned with my bottle of water. I nodded as he showed it to me, and the suit-clad man dropped it into the chute. I watched for a long moment, shaking my head when nothing changed.

  "Nope, nothing. Fair enough, though, can't say I really expected that to work," I admitted. "But it does give us something to test it on."

  I quickly tapped one of the large distilled water jugs, watching as one appeared on one of the nearby shelves with a shimmer and a flash. It had taken about a third of what

  "Well… Medical junk and materials just became the most important thing we can find when we travel in the wastes," I said, my men nodding with me in agreement. "For now, let's generate some clean stuff like trauma kits and RadAway, and then we can switch to stimpaks. When we have a good stock of that, we can feed the crappy old stuff into the chute and create stuff we can sell."

  After playing around a bit more with the options, before finally setting it to create Radaway, we all headed back into the HQ. At this point, the sun was starting to set, so there wasn't much we could do before it was time to have dinner and head to bed.

  As usual, dinner was a drag, made slightly better by the company. We were all very much looking forward to the upgrade to our rations. I was trying to temper my expectations, as the quest had specifically said it would suddenly make our food gourmet, but it was hard not to dream.

  When we finally called it a night, I had barely closed my eyes, head on the pillow, before I was suddenly awake again, like a light switch being flicked on, zero to a hundred without any buildup. My heart thundered in my chest, my body trying to come to terms with the sensation I had just felt, while my mind tried to figure out what caused it. I quickly threw myself out of bed, grabbing my pistol from the nightstand as I moved, scanning the room quickly.

  Something was going on, I could feel it.

  The room felt… still around me. It was hard to describe, but it was a mix of silence and oppressive stillness. It was heavy, weighing me down, and for obvious reasons, it put me on edge. As I slowly walked out of my room, my pistol raised, I peered into Carlos and Joseph's room, only to find them empty. I cursed under my breath before slowly making my way out to the main hall. When I looked at the main counter, I slowly lowered my pistol, eyes wide.

  Standing behind the counter, where Maxwell usually stood, was a. He was looking directly at me, his body glowing purple with a flickering light, his eyes burning like miniature suns. After a moment, he moved, walking around the counter, making his way to one of the leather seats, gesturing for me to sit opposite him.

  "Please, sit," He said, his voice vibrating like someone was playing music to load in a house with loose window panes. "I will not hurt you."

  "Yeah, reassuring," I muttered, before slowly crossing the distance and sitting down opposite the starry being. "What is… What?"

  I asked, not really able to fully form the thought into a real sentence.

  "Perhaps we should start with introductions?" The being suggested. "I called the Emissary, a messenger for the entities that are responsible for your current situation. It is nice to meet you, Connor."

  "It's... nice to meet you as well," I responded, doing my best to swallow my panic. "We could have used a warning..."

  "I apologize, that can be difficult to do within the bounds of stable realities," The starry being explained. "Now, excuse me if I get straight to business, but our time is short. I was sent here because your situation has drawn a lot of attention. The entities are… unhappy with how things have been going."

  "I'm sorry?" I asked with a riding note of outrage, my annoyance with the insinuation overriding my trepidation. "I thought we've been doing well considering the circumstances."

  "Oh, you have, and yet the entities believe you are being… hamstrung, by the way the Headquarters currently functions," the emissary explained. "They seek to solve this problem."

  "Right… and do I have any say in this?" I asked, finally placing my pistol on the table.

  It was likely useless anyway.

  "No, you do not," the Emissary responded. "The entities respect their chosen's right to use their gifts as they please. And they may occasionally accept criticism. But the gift is ultimately theirs to give and modify. A decision had been reached about your system. Shall we discuss the results?"