Sameth

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door opens on a cloudy scene of wreck and ruin. "This is Springvale," Ellen says. "There's only two people who live here these days- there used to be raiders holed up in the school, attacking anyone who passed. Now that we've got Tanya living here, her giant ants tend to make short work of anybody hostile who tries to set up camp. If you see a bug bigger than you, just be polite. Tanya gets upset if people hurt her ants."

Comments

[makesthings]

Sameth swallows as he looks around as it reminds him of Ancelstierre and the worst parts of the Old Kingdom,

"I will."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"You've already seen the local cows," Ellen says as she starts forward. "So those shouldn't be a surprise. But if you see anything moving quickly, or anything flying at about eye level, it's probably dangerous and you should react right away. Worry about what it is later."

[makesthings]

"That's how I was trained at home,"

To prepare himself, he rests his hand on his sword hilt and puts in the front of his mind a number of offensive spells.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"If it's wearing black armor, though," Ellen says, "don't attack it unless it attacks first. The Brotherhood of Steel had a schism some time ago, and the Outcasts are still out there. We're trying not to go into an active war with them if we can avoid it."

[makesthings]

"No black armor, no big bugs, but we wary of everything else?"

He asks as he wants to be sure of what he's doing.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"That's about right," Ellen says. "Of course, if anybody in armor starts shooting at us, go ahead and fight back. I sure plan to."

Up ahead a pile of jagged metal looms. "That's Megaton," Ellen says. "The city walls, anyway. That's Deputy Weld, in front- he's a robot, a thinking machine."

[makesthings]

"I've met some robots in Milliways. What's the fan for?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"That used to be an engine," Ellen says. "Megaton was built from the parts of pre-War flying machines. The only thing the engine does now is open the city gates."

"HOWDY, PARDNER," the robot announces as they pass. "Y'ALL COME BACK NOW, YOU HEAR?"

[makesthings]

"How does it do that?"

As they go through the gates, Sameth tries to see if he can spot the mechanism.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The mechanism is located all the way up at the top, under the belly of the engine. Beyond the gates lie a dozen or more buildings, all lining the sides of a downward sloping crater.

"We're just here to meet up with Moira before we go," Ellen says. "She's in that building on the other side of the crater, to the right. Craterside Supply. Months ago she had me install a widget in the mainframe computer at the factory, so she's got more information on the robots there than anybody else."

[makesthings]

Sameth nods and keeps looking around as they walk.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

It's a busy place at this time of day, and a smelly one. There are people all over the place, some walking along the walls ("That's Stockholm, the sniper- he's one of our guards"). There's a dark-skinned man in a leather coat and a cowboy hat, whom Ellen greets as Sheriff Simms in passing. Down in the center of the crater there's a skinny, white-haired man standing in front of the large, ovoid object that takes up the very middle of the crater; Ellen rolls her eyes at him. "One of these days Confessor Cromwell is going to get too sick to save," she says. "He's worshipping one of the old weapons of the war that did this to the land."

[makesthings]

"What kind of sickness is it? Maybe he could find a way to protect himself if worshiping is so important to him."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Radiation sickness," Ellen says. "There's a type of energy those weapons give off, and it's still lingering in a lot of places today. It damages the body, especially the parts of the body responsible for keeping other illnesses from taking hold. It can cause parts of the body to grow out of control, as well. Too much of it will kill all the marrow of your bones, and you'll be dead in a week or two. Confessor Cromwell takes medicines to fight the worst of its effects, but they're not going to save him forever."

She's had radiation sickness before, twice, and even with all the medical tech that managed to save her she never wants to do that again.

[makesthings]

"Oh, right, you've mentioned that before I think,"

Sameth doesn't think he knows anything that would help.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Anyway, he's not my concern. He's a grown man, he can take care of himself."

They pass the water treatment plant, which is marginally better-built than the rest of town, and come up to Craterside Supply. The air inside is somewhat obscured, but there's the sound of a woman coughing, and then a voice calls out, "Don't mind the smoke! It's perfectly safe to breathe, really!"

"Hi, Moira."

[makesthings]

Sam grins as the atmosphere makes him think of the forge and his workshop, "Hello."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

A click, a whirr, and a rusty electric fan blows most of the smoke away. On the other side is a disgruntled-looking fellow in leather armor, holding an assault rifle, and a red-headed woman in her late twenties or early thirties, wearing a light blue RobCo jumpsuit. "Oh, hey, it's you!" she says to Ellen. "Long time no see! Who's your friend?"

[makesthings]

"I'm Sameth, it's good to meet you,"

As the smoke is blown away, he looks around to see what she's working on.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

On the workbench to one side- just past the man in leathers- there's a lunchbox with several odd components strapped to it and an antenna poking out of one end. The far end of the metal-walled room seems to be the source of the smoke; bottles of what might be purified chemicals, a series of complicated glassware devices all feeding into one another, and burning Brahmin dung. At least one of the pieces of glassware recently exploded.

"The same here!" Moira exclaims. "That's quite the get-up you've got on there! Have you been into the ruins? Did that come from one of the buildings in DC?"

"He's from outside the Wasteland," Ellen says, "and he's an engineer. We don't really have much time here right now. We're on our way to the RobCo factory."

"Oh, my goodness, yes!" Moira says. "You know, I've still got the data feed going from that mainframe?"

[makesthings]

"Data feed of which data?"

Sameth keeps looking around but doesn't touch anything as he doesn't want to cause any problems.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Right over here," says Moira, turning to a battered grey-and-green RobCo terminal on a nearby table. "I'll show you. Ellen, here, helped me out when I was writing the Wasteland Survival Guide last year and made it all the way to the factory to see if there was anything we could still make use of! Come on over and have a look. There's still active robots on the premises! The mainframe can still communicate with them! See, here-"

She pulls up a live data feed on unit status throughout the RobCo building and starts cheerfully explaining what each individual element means.

[makesthings]

Sameth smiles and listens, this is fascinating and she's clearly a sort of Wallmaker for this world.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"They're only Protectrons, of course, they're not full-on military robots or anything," Moira notes somewhere in all of that. "Just meant for your basic security and home defense platforms, which is why they might've been fighting each other months ago but eventually gave up- they don't have the capacity to reload themselves when they run out of energy cells, and they really aren't built at all for hand to hand! So even if they're still hostile when you get there, just keep out of the way and they should calm right down."

[makesthings]

"That makes sense. I know of some things that work like that,"

Older Sendings will get stuck into patterns.