aaaaaaaagh_sky | RobCo Facility

The trek from Megaton to where Moira said the RobCo facility had been took longer than Ellen had expected. She'd started out from Megaton just as soon as the sun came up, the better to make her way south over unfamiliar, uneven ground. Moira had given her a processor widget to install before attempting any downloads; it was nestled snugly in her backpack between two days' worth of rations for two people. No sense taking chances, after all.

The distance hadn't been the big issue, though. The real source of delays, Ellen felt, was the landscape itself. Southwest of Megaton the surface became more and more uneven, rocky and hilly in places, studded with the long-dead remains of multiple trees in others. More than once she had to climb over the fallen rubble that was all that remained of the old elevated roads, only to have to turn around and pick her way across some other area to avoid landing in radioactive ground-water. And if that weren't enough, all of it was anything but empty. More than once she found herself chased by starving wild dogs or harassed by mole rats. In one area, she had to outrun a gang of spike-wearing Raiders, one of whom was armed with a missile launcher. She regretted leaving the sniper rifle home then, to be sure.

Eventually, though, she spotted one of the huge metalwork towers she'd assumed were navigational markers. As she followed its lines to the next tower, and the next, she spotted a hefty-looking grey building up ahead, easily twice the size of Super-Duper Mart. It was surrounded by broken grey stone that might once have all been of one piece, and here and there slender metal posts- possibly lamps of some kind- rose from the ground. The slanting rays of the sun as it crept down the western sky picked out faded red lettering over the door, an R and a couple of O's; she checked her Pip-Boy.

Yep. Looked like the RobCo facility, all right.

Ellen glanced around and started a perimeter sweep, just to be on the safe side. There were no enemies in sight, whether Raiders or Talon Company, save for a black beast somewhat larger than Ellen that turned out to be a giant scorpion, of all things. It was a tough one, too, not giving up the ghost until she'd emptied five or six shotgun shells into it. She eyed it, opted not to bother trying to butcher it (Moira had said she could get good meat butchering any mirelurks she managed to kill, but never said anything about scorptions), and moved on. There was some kind of enormous tower to the south, she noted, possibly the single biggest building she'd ever seen. She'd have to explore it later, if she ever got the chance.

For now the important thing was that there was a bit of chain-link fence up ahead that still had its gate hanging on by rusty, fragile hinges. She opened it and stepped through to Milliways in search of Alyx Vance.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

vance_prime

Alyx thought she was prepared for the mission. She's got food, water, and plenty of ammo. She got as much information as possible from Ellen ahead of time. She's even borrowed the Vault woman's spare set of body armor, although it makes her feel like a turtle whose shell is a size too large.

She's prepared for the mission.

She's not prepared for the vista that greets her as she steps through the door. Despite the destruction of Black Mesa and the devastation wrought by the Combine, Alyx has never seen a landscape that looks so utterly dead.

"Good God. And humans did all this?"

Edited Date: 2009-03-24 07:35 pm (UTC)

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Yep, pretty much," says Ellen. "It might not be as bad elsewhere. I mean, this is relatively close to where the national capital used to be, so the region was a pretty strategic target during the Great War."

From:

vance_prime

Alyx has never been to Washington, before or after the Seven Hours War. She's heard tell that the Combine hit the District of Columbia so hard that the region will be uninhabitable for decades, if not centuries.

She wonders if it looks anything like this.

She hopes she never has to find out.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"I only just got here a little before I came to get you, but I did an area sweep," Ellen says. "There don't seem to be any humans nearby. I killed a giant scorpion, though. We'll probably want to remember that when we come out."

From:

vance_prime

"How giant are we talking here? Human-sized? Bigger? Smaller?"

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"About my size," says Ellen. "The corpse is over there, if you want a look. The exoskeleton's pretty thick but I don't think I can use it for much."

From:

vance_prime

Alyx strides over in the direction Ellen indicates.

...damn, that's one ugly sucker. She crouches down for a closer look. "Yeah, you're probably better off just leaving it. Taking parts from something poisonous is generally a bad idea."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen nods. "I haven't seen any deathclaws in the area either, so that's the other dangerous thing I know of," she says. "I think we should be all right. Was there anything you wanted to check out here or anything you needed to know before we headed in?"

From:

vance_prime

"You said you had a Geiger counter on your PipBoy, right?" says Alyx after a moment's thought. "And did you see any other possible exits besides the main one, in case we have to get out in a hurry?"

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen nods. "The nearest radiation source out here's about a hundred yards northeast- it's a pool of groundwater," she says. "But the Geiger counter is active all the time. I only found one entrance that's actually open. The rest of them are boarded shut, except for the sliding roll-up ones that're too heavy for me to open."

From:

vance_prime

Damn. What Alyx wouldn't give for a crowbar right about now...

"Right." She draws her gun with a resolute nod. "Let's do this."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen nods and readies her laser pistol before easing the pitted grey double doors open.

The large room beyond is dimly lit at best, skylights being the primary source of illumination until Ellen flicks the light switch on her Pip-Boy. The two women are not alone here- at least, not if the silent, immobile Protectrons posed at intervals around the room count as company. Each one stands on a plinth for better viewing by would-be customers; one is painted in olive drab and bears the white star of the U.S. Army on its chest. (It was posed, quite naturally, in a saluting position.) There are six of them, and they alone appear to have survived the centuries unscathed; no paint here is without its peeling or bubbling or cracking, and the drop ceiling sags in places.

From:

vance_prime

They look more like something out of a movie set than anything that would actually function, but Alyx isn't taking any chances. She moves very slowly through the room, casting a wary eye on each of them.

"Any idea which direction we're supposed to be heading?" she murmurs out of the corner of her mouth.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen, for her part, is used to Protectrons. The ones back in the Vault weren't all that bright; that may or may not apply here, but either way these robots aren't going anywhere so far as she can see. She glances over at the doors to the left and right, then nods right. "This way," she says. "If we're looking for the RobCo mainframe, it's going to need to be somewhere central, and most of the building is down here."

She begins picking her way around fallen ceiling tiles and over lumps in the floor, but stops as something goes squish underfoot. After peering at the bottom of her boot, she winces. "I don't know what did that," she says, "but there's definitely something alive here, so-"

Up ahead, in the dimly-lit room at the end of the corridor, the sound of scrambling feet can be heard.

From:

vance_prime

Alyx nods and stalks over to press herself against the corridor wall, peering carefully into the room beyond.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

The walls ahead are more solid, being made of concrete and steel- the locker area for factory workers, perhaps, given the cabinets along the walls and the ruined benches here and there. More importantly, though, it's a room with living inhabitants- mottled, wrinkled-skinned creatures the size of dogs, with clawed toes and massive incisors. One of them rears up on its hind legs briefly to look around, giving the impression of a bizarrely mutated Houndeye.

"Mole rats," mutters Ellen. "Vicious biters, big teeth, not very sturdy."

From:

vance_prime

"Right."

In one practiced movement, Alyx turns, steps out into the center of the corridor, and lowers her gun to fire three bullets into the head of the closest mole rat.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

It screeches like a banshee and drops like a brick. The others- there are three or four- whip around to face the source of the distress cry and charge at Alyx as fast as their stubby little legs will let them.

One of them, at least, will never make it. Mole rats were never equipped to survive being shot in the head repeatedly with small caliber laser fire.

From:

vance_prime

Nor to survive half a dozen rounds from an automatic machine pistol.

Ten seconds later, there are no more mole rats left.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Nice work," says Ellen, and eyes the corpses thoughtfully. Then she shakes her head. "I'm not so hard up just yet that I need to butcher them... let's keep moving." She does, however, pause briefly as they pass a twisted hunk of metal with a rounded end poking out of it. After a little scrabbling in the mess she comes up with both hands full and a satisfied expression. "Dead Protectron," she explains. "The power cells my pistol runs on? They're the same model the Protectrons use for their own weapons."

A little ways further along the corridor opens out into a high-ceilinged room, A machine shop or factory floor once, the place smells of rust and mildew. Dirty windows stretch from the floor to the ceiling thirty feet overhead, illuminating the place but casting long shadows over the wreckage of industry. It may have been a packing area for parts, once; there are elements of what looks like a conveyor belt still recognizable in the middle of the floor, alongside the larger machinery. A catwalk runs around the room a little bit above floor level, leading into what might have been a control facility at some point.

As Ellen pauses to take stock of the place, the scrabbling of mole rat feet can be heard again. She grimaces and turns to look for it.

From:

vance_prime

Alyx edges her way along the catwalk, eyes on the equipment in the center of the room. There's no lights on or motors moving, but she could swear she hears a faint, high-pitched hum just on the edge of hearing, like the barely-perceptible sound a cathode monitor makes when it's turned on.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

A few quick zap! zap! noises later, the scrambling noises cease. "I think that's the last one," Ellen calls. "Find any- oh blast."

Another zap.

"Radroach. Sorry. Anyway, did you find anything?"

From:

vance_prime

"I think some of these machines still have power," calls Alyx. Sure enough, although the terminal screens are dark, there are a few indicator lights in the control center that still glow with life. She taps what she thinks might be an oscilloscope of some description. "Oh, and there's another busted robot over here."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Ooh." Ellen jogs over to have a look. "Thanks... oh, hey, look at this."

Wedged between the remains of the Protectron and the wall is a miraculously undamaged (damp-smelling, but otherwise undamaged) hard-cover volume entitled The Trail of the Fox. Ellen frowns a little and starts thumbing through it, but it doesn't seem to be anything related to robots or computers. With a shrug, she adds it to her backpack. Who knows, it might be entertaining someday.

From:

vance_prime

Alyx leans over, following the power cables trailing out of the backs of the machines. One of the terminal cords looks to have been gnawed on at some point in the past. Maybe...

"Hang on a second."

Alyx drops off the edge of the raised platform on which the control center is located. If she stands on tiptoe, she can just barely reach up to unplug that device in the corner and toss the end of the cord up onto the platform. She then levers herself up onto the platform again, unplugs the ruined cord from the terminal, and replaces it with the other.