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

[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."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I've never seen one operational," Ellen admits, "but I've seen them in other places around the Wasteland. They're real, and they're dangerous. If shooting starts, get away from the cars. A bullet through the car's power plant will cause an explosion more often than not- even after all this time."

[vance_prime]

"Power pla--? Are you telling me the cars were nuclear powered too?!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The oil fields of Texas were nothing but tapped-out husks by 2055," Ellen says. "The Chinese invaded Alaska in 2067 because it was the only place left on Earth producing oil in industrial quantities. They converted most of the cars over to nuclear power- fusion plants, I think. There's not nearly enough radiation left after a car explodes to be consistent with a fission power source."

[vance_prime]

"Oh, that's smart. Let's put a nuclear fusion reactor in the front end of a fast-moving vehicle."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen shrugs. "I didn't design them," she says. "You're right. It's crazy. At least the motorcycles still ran on ordinary flammable fuel, I can't imagine wanting to ride around with a nuclear power plant directly between your legs."

[vance_prime]

"I'm amazed there was anyone left by the time the bombs hit," Alyx mutters, too low for Ellen to hear.

Enough rabbiting. They've got a job to do.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods and picks up the pace.

They pass wrecks of cars, and wrecks of... well. Ellen was right when she said the supermutants used to be people. The corpse they pass, half-out of one of the trenches, is of something that must have been seven or eight feet tall when it was alive. Its skin is an unhealthy yellow-green, and has the texture one would expect from the hide of a rhino, to look at it. Its lips are fixed in a peeled-back snarl, even in death, but its assault rifle tumbled from its too-thick fingers some time ago. The armor it wears is bodged together from whatever scraps of metal and leather it could scavenge; it doesn't seem to have helped much...

"Supermutant," Ellen identifies. "Also called muties, uglies, Frankensteins, and greenskins."

[vance_prime]

...

Yeah, Alyx is just gonna be staring openmouthed at the corpse for a bit, okay?

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"They used to be humans," Ellen goes on. "Most of them don't speak much beyond snarling and cursing. I know they can do more than that, though. I met one once who got cast out from the rest for trying to turn them away from fighting and killing. He called himself Uncle Leo, and he said they capture people alive and drag them off to some kind of cold metal place to try and turn them into more mutants."

[vance_prime]

Alyx shivers a little.

"Why?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I don't know," says Ellen. "Uncle Leo's the only one who could carry on a conversation beyond 'green stuff makes many mistakes, we dump bodies in cave too many times'. They must not have much luck reproducing- I remember reading in science class that a lot of mutants are sterile- so they've got to reproduce some other way, and that means turning people into more of their kind."

[vance_prime]

"They're not a 'kind'!" Alyx almost shouts. "They're mutated humans, and they know it! Why would they want to force that on other people?!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Uncle Leo said he didn't remember anything from before he became a mutant," Ellen says quietly. "He didn't even remember whether he'd been named Leo, or whether he'd read the name in a book. I don't think most of them have much room in their brains for anything but rage and sadism any more, from what I've seen."

[vance_prime]

Alyx stares at the dead supermutant again. She can't imagine what that must be like. She doesn't want to imagine it.

"Come on," she says when she manages to tear her eyes away. "We've got to keep moving."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. She's already prayed for enough mutant dead; she doesn't need to do it again for this one.

There were corpses- mutants, mostly- scattered about the area the last time she passed through here. It looks as if someone dragged them away, a fact for which she's thankful. This is September in the Wasteland, and the prospect of the dead left in the open sun... well. Not a nice idea.

At least the power-armored guards at the fortifications that encircle the base of the Washington Monument seem to be all right. One's armed with an enormous minigun, one with a substantial laser rifle, and one, patrolling along the top of the fortifications, has a sniper rifle in his or her hands. It's a little hard to tell gender through that much power armor.

"Brotherhood of Steel," Ellen offers by way of identification. "They came to the Wasteland before I was born, from out where California used to be. They were supposed to recover old technology from the area and send it back, but their leader decided it was more important to defend the local people from the mutant threat first, and do what he could about technology recovery second."

[vance_prime]

"Makes sense," murmurs Alyx. "They're not gonna treat us as hostiles, right?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No, they know me," says Ellen, raising a hand in their direction. The Brother (or Sister) with the laser rifle waves in response. "They're guarding the Monument because it's being used as a broadcast tower for a radio station that isn't just propaganda. One of the mutants shot the original broadcast dish down- I helped fix it the first time I came here."

[g00d_d0ggie]

D0G waves at the guard with the laser rifle. What kind of reaction that will garner is anyone's guess.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There's a moment of silence long enough to probably encompass a blink or two. Then the guard leans over and taps the minigun bearer on the shoulder, and points.

Power armor makes for fun double-takes.

[g00d_d0ggie]

"Don't worry!" calls Alyx, cheerfully. "He's mine, he won't hurt you!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Nice work!" calls the minigunner in reply, and offers a thumbs-up. Then he, and the others, go back to their patrol.

"They're usually more tense and less talkative," Ellen observes. "Today must be a good day for them."

[vance_prime]

"Then it's probably a good day for us, too," says Alyx. "Right?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Probably," agrees Ellen. "If they're in a good mood then there probably hasn't been much in the way of violence to put them on edge..."

As they get around the Monument, Ellen pauses, glancing down at her Pip-Boy. "Wow," she says. "Yeah. We definitely don't want to go near that reflecting pool. About three yards to either side should be safe, though."