Head of State

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Well. Reilly's been dealt with, and her people are happy with that. It's time to go back to the basics now. Ellen needs to get herself out to the Lincoln Memorial and check things over so that she can report to the slaves and get them set up before getting back to Rivet City. Of course, from what she remembers from Mr. Mills' world, the Memorial has decent lines of sight and a fairly strategic location. There are Brotherhood of Steel patrols around the base of the Washington Monument; that implies that if there are mutants holed up in the Memorial, they must be pretty well established, otherwise the Brotherhood would've gone after them. Too bad Tulip was out of Stealth Boys when Ellen stopped by her place in Underworld. Maybe she can get one from the bar....

Comments

[vance_prime]

"Yeah, well, not everybody can rely on surviving pre-war technology. No offense."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"None taken," says Cerberus. "Can I be of assistance today?"

The robot has no face, so it's a little hard to tell, but one gets the impression that it's rather pointedly ignoring Ellen and concentrating on Alyx and D0G.

[vance_prime]

"Possibly. Do you know anything about anyone holed up in the Lincoln Memorial?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Negative. Unless it directly threatens the welfare of Underworld and its citizens, I don't get to hear about it."

[vance_prime]

Alyx nods. "Well, thanks anyway. I need to go stock up on ammunition."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Closing dialog system," says Cerberus, and drifts off.

Ellen shakes her head. "I'm surprised he didn't try to pull anything on you," she says. "The first time I was here, he implied Dr. Barrows was about to vivisect a wounded human to see what made her tick, just to get him in trouble."

[vance_prime]

"What? Why??"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"He hates ghouls," Ellen says with a shrug. "They've fitted him with a combat inhibitor that prevents him from attacking them, and they've programmed him to be polite to their faces and generally polite to visitors, but he considers them rotting zombie maggot farms that he'd burn if he could. I guess they must be pretty hard up for security if they have to settle for a guardian like that."

[vance_prime]

Alyx shakes her head. "I might have to read up on pre-microchip computing and come back and reprogram that sucker."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Winthrop would love you for that," says Ellen. "He's the local maintenance man and engineer... ah, we're here."

The gallery they've headed into is comparatively small, but it holds a respectable stock of items, and the counter boasts both a cash register and a solid, one-piece, green-screen terminal. Behind the counter a scabrous-looking woman in a short black vest and long-sleeved faded red shirt is thumbing through a book. She looks up with misty blue eyes and gives an absolutely ghastly smile. "You came back!" she says; her enthusiasm sounds genuine, even if her voice sounds like it's being pushed through steel wool. "You really came back. Wow. And you brought another friend!"

"Hi, Tulip," says Ellen. "This is Alyx, and this is D0G."

[vance_prime]

Alyx gives Tulip an awkward little wave. "Hi. Um, I need to buy some ammo?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Sure thing, honey, it all works," says Tulip, gesturing to the shelves behind her. "Name your size. I got everything in use in the Wasteland and a couple of things I don't think anybody uses any more."

[vance_prime]

Oh good! An excuse to look at the shelves rather than the woman with no nose, no ears, and most of her skin and hair gone.

"Twelve-gauge shotgun shells, and nine-millimeter bullets. In clips for a semi or submachine gun, if you've got 'em."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Hm. You know, I think- yeah, okay, here..." Tulip takes down a couple of positively ancient, dust-covered boxes. "Most of the guns around here use ten millimeter. A few years back, though, Quinn picked up a couple of cases of this stuff from some guy who said he'd come in from out west. Nobody's had any interest in it since. Lemme know if this is suitable. As far as the shells go..." She gestures at a small stack of green and red boxes. "Always in demand."

[vance_prime]

Alyx holds up the box and carefully blows the dust off. The printing underneath is faded, but still legible. She reads it and lets out a low whistle. "Armor-piercing. Nice."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It's all the same price as far as I'm concerned," says Tulip. "Not like anybody else's ever expressed an interest. Standard, armor piercing, hollow point, it all takes up shelf space just the same."

[vance_prime]

Alyx opens one box, then the other, pulling out the clips to ensure that they're still in good shape.

"How much for the lot?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The clips are fine- untouched and unused, but still fine. Tulip names her price, and Ellen's eyebrows jerk upwards in surprise. "That's maybe a quarter of the price for ten millimeter," she murmurs to Alyx.

Then Tulip mentions the price on shotgun shells; Ellen nods. "That's about what you'd pay anywhere, though."

[vance_prime]

"Excellent." Alyx opens the bag of bottlecaps she acquired from Bar and starts counting out.

Haggling? What's that?

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Something Ellen's no good at either, for whatever that's worth. Tulip smiles and says, "Another satisfied customer. There anything else I can do for you?"

"I think we should be good now," says Ellen, "unless you know anything about the Lincoln Memorial..."

"Nah, I haven't heard anything. Quinn doesn't go up that way much," says Tulip. "The Brotherhood guys at the Washington Monument took a couple of potshots at him once when he headed that way. It's not worth it."

Ellen nods. "Okay, then. I think we're set. Ready when you are, Alyx."

[vance_prime]

"Just a sec..." She carefully pulls out the clip in her pistol and replaces it with the hollow tips.

Better safe than sorry.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods and leads the way back out. There's another ghoul woman with an assault rifle in her hands once they get past the front doors; she just glances at Ellen and nods. "That's Willow," Ellen says. "She's the sentry, in case anything or anyone comes out of the Metro station, there-" She points to a set of rusted escalators that open onto street level. "Usually they don't have to worry about anything coming in from the Mall. The Brotherhood is busy, and the mutants don't bother."

Possibly because, once one reaches where the street actually used to be, the other side is not so much the National Mall any more as it is a vast network of entrenchments, earthworks, and fortifications.

"There's not a lot of mutants in there right now. Most of them are concentrated up towards the Capitol," Ellen says. "If we keep to the shadows and out of the way we should be all right, but I've got a Stealth Boy on me just in case. I was hoping not to have to use it until we got to the Memorial, though." She nods towards the Washington Monument. "It's past that."

[vance_prime]

"Right. D0G, watch our backs, and be quiet about it."

Woop! says D0G with a salute. Then he looks sheepish and lets out a much quieter woop.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen chuckles. "Thank you, D0G," she says, and creeps forward.

There's a sound of gunfire in the distance, but it's well and truly away from here- down at the far end of the Mall, if the occasional flash of light and paff of smoke from that direction are anything to go by. Ellen takes the opportunity to creep forward and peer through a gap in the fortifications. "I think," she murmurs, "that we're in luck. They don't seem to have retaken this part of the trenches- if we move quickly we won't need those Stealth Boys at all."

And a good thing it is, too, given how many half-collapsed buildings and chunks of rebar litter the vicinity, not to mention the remains of rotted-out automobiles half again the size of the muscle car Gordon and Alyx rode in. You could put your eye out on the remains of the tailfins.

[vance_prime]

"Are those real?" murmurs Alyx dubiously. "They look like they came off a movie set."