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]

When Ellen enters Milliways, she is greeted by the sight of a girl and her dog. And by 'dog' we mean 'giant combat droid.'

"Now, just hold still..."

Mwoo?

"Because I can't fix your shoulder joint if it's moving, that's why."

BwaAAP!

"Quit whining, you don't even have a touch sensor there--"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, hi, Alyx," calls Ellen, looking up at the sound of the voices. "How're you doing?"

[vance_prime]

"Not bad," says Alyx, not looking up from the bolt she's tightening. "Be with you in a sec."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Not a problem. I'm not going anywhere," Ellen says as she settles in at one of the nearby chairs.

[vance_prime]

One crank, two cranks... "Okay, how's that?"

D0G works his shoulder back and forth a moment, then nods and gives Alyx a thumbs-up.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen smiles. "When I get back to Megaton, I'm going to have to go over Wadsworth's parts," she says. "I've been putting it off."

[vance_prime]

Alyx nods, then: "Oh, hang on a sec--"

She pulls a giftwrapped box from the small pile on a nearby table and hands it to Ellen. "Merry belated Christmas."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh!" says Ellen. "Thank you. Um, just a moment. This is for you-"

She'd seen the calendar when she came in with Annabelle, and made some room in her budget at Underworld just for the occasion. Granted, there's no wrapping on her copy of Dean's Electronics, but still.

[vance_prime]

"Oh, neat," says Alyx, taking the book. "Thanks, Ellen."

Ellen's package contains a pair of zippered pouches connected together with an assortment of straps.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen turns the assemblage this way and that. Eventually she thinks to unzipper one of the pouches, and finds an instruction card within. "Oh!" she says. "This'll be useful- thank you!"

[vance_prime]

"You're welcome," says Alyx. "I can do some alterations if it doesn't fit Dogmeat, I wasn't a hundred percent sure of the sizing..."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It should work," Ellen says. "I'll try it on him later... right now I'm trying to decide if I want him to come with me the next time I step out the door or not."

[vance_prime]

Alyx quirks an eyebrow. "What's the situation?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen rubs at the back of her neck. "I'm supposed to be investigating the old Lincoln Memorial for a group of escaped slaves," she says. "They want to move into the Memorial and use it as a haven for anybody escaping from slavery, but it's very close to the Mall, and they've heard about all the mutant activity in the area. I want to get in there and investigate before any combat takes place, and Dogmeat tends to attack anything that even looks at me funny, which could be kind of counterproductive."

[vance_prime]

.

.

.

"What?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"... I overshot, I'm sorry," Ellen says. "Um. I guess I should start with the fact that slavery exists in the Wasteland. I haven't seen many slaves myself- just the ones I was trying to help escape- but there's apparently a settlement called Paradise Falls that's based around the slave trade. I'm trying to help some people get away from them, for starters."

Full disclosure, Ellen reminds herself, works just as well one step at a time as it does in massive doses.

[vance_prime]

"Who's enslaving them?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Just- people, I guess," Ellen says. "Enrique said that their settlement was attacked by mutants, and there was just so much chaos and so many dead that they couldn't mount any kind of resistance when the slave-takers came."

[vance_prime]

Alyx lets out a long, slow breath.

"How long ago was this?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Enrique said he and Perlie and Somersett got bought up a few months ago," Ellen says. "There's been slavery longer than that, though. I talked to a man who escaped from his master six years ago- and he'd been a slave for twenty-three years."

[vance_prime]

Alyx is silent for a full five seconds.



Then she starts pulling items out of her tool belt and checking them over. Gun, spare ammo, switchblade, hacking probe, that one Stealth Boy that never got used...

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Right now I'm just looking to investigate the Memorial," Ellen says. "It's located near a big nest of supermutants. I don't think I told you about those before, since they weren't anywhere near Megaton. They're former humans- huge, green-skinned, and prone to eating people. If they've taken over the Memorial I want to find out how many of them there are and come back here to get a volunteer force to wipe them out so the escaped slaves can move in. That's why Dogmeat has to stay- I don't want him to get himself killed because he tried to attack them."

[vance_prime]

"D0G can come along as backup," says Alyx. "He can handle it."

Woop! agrees D0G.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "There may be people in power armor in the vicinity," she says. "The Brotherhood of Steel has a guard detail at the Washington Monument, and I know that's got a line of sight on the Lincoln Memorial. I know the Brotherhood is trying to clear out as many of the mutants as they can from the DC ruins, so if they haven't done anything about the Memorial, it's probably because the mutants are too entrenched to handle right now or something." She thinks for a moment. "Um, I don't know if the reflecting pool in front of the Memorial still exists, but if it does, it's probably radioactive, so we'll be staying away from that. Is there anything else you want to know before we start?"

[vance_prime]

"Yeah. How easy is it to find nine-millimeter clips in the Wasteland? Bar won't sell me ammo unless I'm completely out."