Olney Powerworks

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There were Deathclaws and Enclave and fire and falling concrete and all kinds of horrible things not all that very long ago. Now.... now, with the massive steel door of the Olney Powerworks firmly closed behind everyone, it's quiet.

Well. Mostly quiet. There's the hum of an ancient generator somewhere in the distance.

And the faint rasp of air through a ventilation system that wanted to give up a very long time ago.

And the whirr of something moving through corridors reasonably close by.

Oh, right, and the sound of thrusters as a spherical robot with three arms, three equilaterally spaced optic sensors, and a flamethrower putters past on the prowl for security violations up ahead.

"All I ask," mutters Ellen, "is that anything that looks even remotely like a Tesla coil be spared. Or holotapes that might have plans on them. Otherwise, go to town."

The sooner they're done here the better.

Comments

[basic_powers]

"Ahh...the 70 effective maxims of pirates...Pillage, then burn." Moon Shadows rasps out from his vocoder.

Yes he had to say that line, and he's smiling under that mask.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Grognak too," says Ellen. "No point in being a barbarian raider if there's nothing to raid."

She's busy making sure her plasma rifle is ready to go, and wishing she had a pulse grenade on her.

[unbreakableben]

"Can I keep any comics I find?" Ben half jokes as he looks around. He's always on the look out for new reading material.

"Hey She-hulk, how about you and I go make some noise and see if we can't draw out some targets for these guys?"

[boston_bruiser]

"Fine by me," Voodoo mutters, taking a knee and keeping the barrel of the M60 pointed downrange. "So long as you stay out of my line of fire."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"You can have the comics," Ellen promises Ben. "If there are any readable other books, the Brotherhood would like them-"

"Are you ready to die for your country, you commie son of a bitch?" snarls a very creditable imitation of R. Lee Ermey from a side corridor just up ahead.

[unbreakableben]

"Ppsssh, "I'm bullet proof." Ben begins to reply over his shoulder when R. Lee Ermey's voice interrupts him. "What the hell?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Prewar building security. It's a Mr. Gutsy robot," Ellen murmurs, readying her plasma rifle. "They hover and they have flamethrowers and energy weapons."

"Well, since you won't do the world a favor and kill yourself, I guess I'm going to have to do it for you!"

"... and they don't shut up until they're dead."

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

"'Mr. Gutsy'? Ellen, please tell me you made up that name."

Then she hears what Mr. Gutsy has to say and laughs audibly. But these Gutsys could kill her mission partners, so she has to supress more silent hilarity. This mission is no laughing matter.

"Who wants this one? Ben and I can be in front and take the brunt of fire if that sits well with everyone else."

She's already moving towards what she judges the front of the pack.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Nope. General Atomics product. Mr. Gutsy was the military model, Mr. Handy the household caretaker."

She thinks for a minute and adds, "It's pretty thick armor but it'll go down if you shoot it with enough ordinary bullets. Anyone who wants a crack at it can have one."

Team "PAM! BULLETS WON'T STOP IT!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

From the look of things there aren't any humans around here and there haven't been for a long time. There's dust on the floor, and it's streaked with the mark of wheels as wide as a human hand- at least where it's not scorched down by the passing of ancient thrusters. At least there's none of the dank, rotting-meat reek of the tunnels below Olney here, only dust and a whiff of ozone.

This isn't the office area of the powerworks, not by any stretch of the imagination. This is where the work gets done. There are faded signs on the walls that speak of hydrogen reserves and mass relays*, and the old scientific emblems warning of danger and explosion hazards.

YOu could make a pretty good fortress out of this part of the powerworks, if you didn't mind the strong chance that whatever finally defeated you would inevitably send the whole place up in a fireball to rival Minor Scale.



*[OOC: We wish we were kidding. We've played too much Mass Effect 2 not to twitch at the term. But there's ruins marked 'MDPL Mass Relay' and 'VAPL Mass Relay' on the map, so... yeah.]

Re: Team "PAM! BULLETS WON'T STOP IT!"

[unbreakableben]

He's not too sure what 'hydrogen reserves' and 'mass relays' are but the warning of explosion hazards is clear enough. He'll step carefully for now...at least until something jumps out at them, but the tension is a bit much so he flexes his fists a few times (having returned the Hammer of Awesomeness to Fawkes) to relieve the stress.

"Marco..."

Re: Team "PAM! BULLETS WON'T STOP IT!"

[calmhrtprevails]

"Warning. Non-combatants are advised to leave the area. Security sweep in progress."

That wasn't Fawkes' voice. That was the sound of something metallic and artificial rolling along the metal-walled corridor up ahead.

Re: Team "PAM! BULLETS WON'T STOP IT!"

[boston_bruiser]

"Security sweep my ass," Voodoo mutters. "Let's light the fucker up."

He sights in on the bot and squeezes off a long burst. It looks durable, but he's hoping the AP rounds'll somehow work their magic.

...on the other hand, there's always the chance that they'll do squat and leave him more or less in the breeze against a very pissed-off robot.

He doesn't like entertaining that thought very much.

Re: Team "PAM! BULLETS WON'T STOP IT!"

[unbreakableben]

Oh but Ben loves entertaining! He charges forward doing his best to keep out of Voodoo's line of sight and keep to the side of the robot that has that viscous looking Gatling gun. He'd have leaped but the ceiling's too short or thrown something but the area seems clear of rubble and he'd have to take the time to make some of his own. Still when you weigh three quarters of a ton, you can do all right...if you manage to connect that is.

Re: Team "PAM! BULLETS WON'T STOP IT!"

[calmhrtprevails]

It's a very, very good thing they both attacked at once. The robot caught sight of them and announced, "Alert. Hostile detected. Lethal force authorized for all units," just before opening fire. The air swiftly fills with laser bolts- which scatter in all kinds of directions, because between Ben's impact and Voodoo's bullets, that robot's going to have a damned hard time keeping its laser arm on target.

Fawkes, for his part, is concentrating on the robot's other arm. He's seen the red-tipped thing at the center before, and he'd just as soon treat that missile to his own Gatling laser fire before it gets loosed upon the world than after, thanks.

Re: Team "PAM! BULLETS WON'T STOP IT!"

[unbreakableben]

Now that he's up close Ben idly wonders how the hell he mistook the cherry red of the tip of the missile for a flamethrower. He also reflects that now he knows what it feels like to be holding a tiger by the tail...Still that missile can still do a lot of damage to the other guys (he doesn't much care if it hits him truth be told) and we can't have that now can we?

He hooks one leg behind one of the robot's wheels, grabs a good hand of gattling laser (jamming the spinning mechanism in the process) and spins to throw himself and the robot to the ground or at least so it's back is now facing Fawkes and Voodoo. As he falls he also reaches over and tries his best to grab missile to crush the housing to prevent it from launching.

"Going down, first floor ass kicking!"

Re: Team "PAM! BULLETS WON'T STOP IT!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The robot's missile arm was not designed for that level of crushing force. It attempts to fire on Ben, but that's hard to do when the launch tube is suddenly less than a quarter its initial diameter. And by 'hard to do' we mean that the missile itself goes off still inside the robot's arm.

Well. Former arm.

It's gonna make a valiant attempt at continuing to fight, but the builders really weren't reckoning on foes of Ben's strength. That bot isn't long for this world.

Team "Anything I Can Pry Loose Is Not Nailed Down"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

One of the doors on the ground floor was still more or less on its hinges, and had a sign reading O ICES F R SEA CH & DEV nailed to it. Beyond it lay a flight of decrepit but still functional stairs. That looked promising.

The fact that there was a faint whirring noise and something bolted to the ceiling up at the top of the stairs was slowly turning its winking red light in the direction of the doorway was not.

Re: Team "Anything I Can Pry Loose Is Not Nailed Down"

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

"Nice shooting. I'll go with Ellen. Someone's got to carry this Tesla coil up top. Who else is with Ellen?"

Jen directs this at Voodoo and company before turning her attention back to Ellen and following her.

The whirring sound she definitely hears.

"Bogey at twelve o'clock, guys! Any idea what it is, Ellen?"

Re: Team "Anything I Can Pry Loose Is Not Nailed Down"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Turret," Ellen says grimly. "Probably the kind that fires bullets, the laser ones usually seem to be floor-mounted."

Darn it, some days she hates pre-war security.

Re: Team "Anything I Can Pry Loose Is Not Nailed Down"

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

Ellen doesn't need to say anything more. Speed is of the essence.

"Watch yourself - I'm taking this one down before it gets too noisy in here."

Jen jumps so that the arc of her leap brings her withing grabbing range of the turret. She manages to grab the turret with both hands, she hangs from it, hand-over-hand inching up towards its base, then pulls because her weight alone won't pull it from the ceiling.

With the sound of grinding metal protesting, the turret is wrenched from its ceiling base.

Jen lands as lightly as she can given her weight. Still, the impact is felt. She's still holding the turret. One end is intact; the other a ragged mess of wire and metal.

She presents it to Ellen. "There'll be lots more of these, I assume."

Re: Team "Anything I Can Pry Loose Is Not Nailed Down"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Probably," Ellen says, staggering a little at the weight of the turret. "Ooh, this is 5.56 ammo. We can definitely keep this."

[respectthegun]

Lawton gives the turret a sideways look that's definitely more appreciative than any other expression he's worn so far this adventure. And by that, we mean he doesn't look completely unimpressed.

Hey, it's a firearm.

"Alright, so we want these kept intact?"

Guns, he respects more than people.

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

"I'll remember that for the next one. I'll try for minimal damage if we encounter one and I'm the one to disable it, unless it's just the ammo you want? Sorry, Ellen, I forgot it might be too heavy for you. Bring it home to Mama. I'll carry it."

She holds out her arms for the turret. She's got experience carrying things while fighting, and besides, she can always just put the damn thing down and go back for it once she sucker punches the next gun or robot or whatever other hostile force they encounter.

"I wish I'd brought my Reed Richards designed backpack. It's bigger inside than outside."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Keep them if you want them, Floyd. You're more than welcome to the guns- the only part of them that interests me is the bullets," Ellen says as she hands the turret over to Jen with visible relief. "Generally I stick to my plasma guns and my assault rifle."

Up ahead the corridor has doors on either side, some with glass still visible in the middle. Ellen very carefully leans forward to peer through one of them. "Ordinary office," she reports. "Deactivated Protectron robot, though. They're not much of a threat even when they're active. We should keep moving, and find where they did the actual research instead of the administrative work."