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:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"I don't know, that's the ingredients on the regular Nuka-Cola," says Ellen. She lifts her left arm and aims the light towards the landing; there's one molerat making ready to jump at them, and another scrambling backwards, apparently being possessed of something of a survival instinct.

Not that that does it much good, since there's lasers being fired and it can only run so fast, but still.

From:

vance_prime

As soon as Alyx and Ellen reach the top of the stairs, two more molerats and two radroaches shoot toward them. Alyx starts firing on the closest molerat immediately, scrambling sideways to avoid getting attacked by the other--

splort.

Okay, make that one radroach. Alyx grimaces.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Nice hit!" says Ellen, who's hastily popping a new energy cell into her pistol and firing on the remaining molerat. If the last radroach has any sense, it'll run.

(It doesn't. It's a radroach.)

From:

vance_prime

It also doesn't have enough sense not to flee right past Alyx's other boot.

splort.

Alyx is going to be dragging her feet a bit when they start moving again, in an attempt to scrape the bug guts off her shoes.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

The linoleum here isn't very well attached. Alyx's foot-dragging pulls up a number of loose tiles. Ellen stops once or twice to fish energy cells out of the fallen Protectrons that litter the rooms they pass through. Just as well, too, given the molerats that keep showing up. Eventually, though, they come to a door at the end of a darkened corridor. Ellen glances down at her Pip-Boy.

"This is it," she says, and throws open the door.

The room on the other side is, unlike everywhere else in the building, brightly lit. Its floor is coming apart and the ceiling is nothing to write home about, but at least it has electrical power... which is a definite prerequisite for the gigantic grey mass of computer hardware lining the far wall, lights blinking and monitor glowing dimly green.

From:

vance_prime

"Alright." Alyx is grinning as she crosses the room. "Let's see what this baby can do..."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

It takes some fiddling and flipping of switches to get a response out of the screen, but it does come up eventually:

WELCOME TO ROBCO INDUSTRIES (TM) TERMLINK >SET TERMINAL/INQUIRE RIT-V300 >SET FILE/PROTECTION-OWNER:RWED ACCOUNTS.F >SET HALT RESTART/MAINT Initializing Robco Industries (TM) MF Boot Agent v2.3.0 RETROS BIOS RBIOS-4.02.08.00 52EE5.E7.E8 Maintenance Mode >RUN DEBUG/ACCOUNTS.F ROBCO INDUSTRIES (TM) TERMLINK PROTOCOL ENTER PASSWORD NOW 4 ATTEMPTS LEFT

And the rest of the screen fills up with hexadecimal addresses, ASCII gibberish, and a password prompt.

From:

vance_prime

Right, try the simple solution first and escalate from there...

> password

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

>ENTRY DENIED >3 ATTEMPTS LEFT >

From:

vance_prime

Damn. Well, it was worth a shot.

'Admin' doesn't work either. Nor does a complex override code that Dr. Chen taught her for finding a backdoor into UNIX-based systems. In desperation, she even tries a Combine access key.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

If it's any comfort, the Combine key doesn't work either.

It's probably not a comfort, is it.

Especially since the computer's just informed her that she's locked out now.

From:

vance_prime

"God dammit--!"

More out of frustration than any expectation that it'll actually work, she yanks her hacking probe out of its holster and aims a bolt of electricity at the console.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

>Exact match! >Please wait >while system >is accessed. ROBCO INDUSTRIES UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM COPYRIGHT 2075-2077 ROBCO INDUSTRIES -Server 4- Welcome to the RobCo Facilities Robot Master Terminal! How may I assist you this fine day? > Orientation Guide > Basic Operation > Initiate Pest Extermination > Cease Total Liquidation > Initiate Stress Testing >

Ellen whistles softly, peering over Alyx's shoulder. "Nice work," she says. "Can I get the widget in before you ... do... any..."

She glances over her shoulder; it's just occurred to her that the sounds of electronics coming to life might not have been generated by the mainframe alone.

"... um. I think the robots are activating," she says, pointing to a Protectron pod on the far wall near the door.

From:

vance_prime

"Crap. Um--one second--"

She quickly arrows down to "Cease Total Liquidation" and hits Enter.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

>Ceasing Sequence Commie-Attack >The Protectron's pod slides open, but the robot simply stands where it is, the light at the top of its form the only thing distinguishing it from the dead robots they'd passed on the way in.

From:

vance_prime

Alyx breathes a quiet sigh of relief.

"Okay, you wanted to plug something in?"

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"For the download," Ellen says, rooting around in her pack and eventually coming up with a small black wedge shot through with gold circuitry. "This should be able to pull off whatever viable data the system still has that isn't solely backed up to tape."

From:

vance_prime

It only takes a moment to locate a slot into which to place the wedge. The drive hums and indicator lights flicker madly, but the screen remains unchanged.

"Hmm..." Alyx eyes the menu choices speculatively. "What else have we got here?"

She selects 'Operation Guide.'

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Congratulations on your transferral to the position of ROBOT PROTOCOL OPERATOR! Your trusted co-workers will be the standard Protectron models stationed throughout the facility. "Basic Operation" covers the day-to-day functionality of your co-workers, as described in detail in your training manual. "Pest Extermination" encourages your co-workers to track and sanitize any roaches, rodents, or other undesired pests on the premises. "Total Liquidation" removes your co-workers' humanoid safety protocols, and is for use only in the unlikely event of criminal intrusion or Communist attack. "Robot Shutdown" allows you to temporarily retire your co-workers...

From:

vance_prime

"Huh."

There's no mention of the 'Stress Testing' that was on the main menu screen...

Alyx switches back to the main menu and selects 'Initiate Stress Testing.' If it does something untoward, she can always turn it off again, right?

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

The Protectron staggers forward a step. "Initiating Sequence Vector-Two-Alpha," it croaks, and far down the corridors other metallic voices bark out the same thing. It seems to ignore the humans completely and turns to stomp out the door, apparently in search of something, though who can say what.

From:

vance_prime

"...well," says Alyx once the Protectron is out of sight. "I guess we can go now?"

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"I don't see why-"

That's when the zapping noises start. And, moments later, croaky robotic "STAND DOWN" demands.

"... I think they're fighting one another?"