RobCo Facility

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

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.

Comments

[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?"

[vance_prime]

"So that's what 'Stress Testing' means." Alyx shrugs. "Guess it's better than having them shoot at us, right?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "Let's hurry out anyway," she says. "Just in case one of them gets the wrong idea."

[vance_prime]

"Right." Alyx pulls the wedge out of the mainframe and gives it back to Ellen before sidling out of the room with her gun drawn.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

She probably needn't have worried. The Protectrons are in full battle mode, but the entirety of their attention seems to be directed at one another rather than the two humans. In fact, one or two of the robots seem to make some kind of effort to shoot around the women as they pass- a fact for which Ellen is grateful. The local vermin take this as their cue to get the heck out of town, for the most part, save for the occasional zapped or stomped-on radroach.

That's the only excuse Ellen can offer for why her guard is so far down that she steps into the first of the manufacturing rooms that they passed without looking around for danger. Fortunately, danger is a good teacher about that kind of thing: a hail of bullets rips into the wall next to her, a few of them grazing her (unfortunately un-armored) left arm.

[vance_prime]

"Shit--!" Alyx dives sideways behind a support column, pushing Ellen down with her.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen doesn't take much shoving- she's got good reflexes. She rolls, protecting her head, and comes up in a low crouch. "What the heck?" she exclaims, scanning the room. "I didn't see any-"

As she squints upward, a few Protectrons stump into the room, firing on one another. The bullets ring out again, directed indiscriminately at the robots. She peers into the shadows.

"Good Lord. I think there's a gun in the ceiling."

[vance_prime]

Alyx curses under her breath. "Just couldn't let us get out that easy, could they?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"And me without my sniper rifle," Ellen mutters. "My shotgun is useless at this range, too... Think you can hit it from here or should we wait for it to shoot for the robots, then run like the dickens?"

[vance_prime]

Alyx squints up. Damn, that's a high ceiling. "I say we wait and then run."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods, looking for the door. "All right. Ready, set-"

One of the robots falls. The turret turns its attention to the survivor.

"Run!!"

[vance_prime]

And run she does, as fast as she can over the cracked and rubble-strewn floor.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The bullets chatter after them as they run, the robots forgotten. A corridor provides brief respite- but the next room is another factory floor, and it, too, has one of the turrets, as does the next.

Ellen's not exactly screaming, but someone is making a thin, high-pitched eeeeeeeee! noise from between clenched teeth as they finally burst into the relative safety of the entry room with its display of inert robots.

[vance_prime]

Alyx is more than half expecting these robots to spring to life and start shooting each other as well. They don't, but that doesn't stop her from inching through the room in a low crouch, her gun at the ready.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen has to stop a moment to catch her breath, leaning on the remains of the reception desk. "I think," she manages, "that we should be all right from here..."

Having said that, she approaches the front door with her own shotgun drawn. It'd be just their luck for there to be a deathclaw waiting outside.

Fortunately, this is not the case. There's nothing to be seen out in the ruins of the parking lot but the last few rays of the setting sun.

[vance_prime]

And only now does Alyx sag and breathe a sigh of relief.

"We made it."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"We did indeed," says Ellen, and then, "Thank you. That would have been a lot worse without your help."

[vance_prime]

Alyx looks sheepish. "I didn't do a hell of a lot that you couldn't have done yourself. And I only got the mainframe working by accident."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Still," says Ellen, "you did get it working. When we get back to Megaton-"

She pauses.

"Um. You don't have to come. I can get you back to Milliways the same way we got here."

[vance_prime]

Alyx quirks an eyebrow. "Is there... some reason I shouldn't go to Megaton?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Not really," says Ellen. "It's just a very long way- several hours' walk- and it'll be getting dark soon. You're welcome to come if you like, of course."

[vance_prime]

Alyx considers this, but only for a moment.

"I think I will, actually."

If the journey is as hazardous as Ellen indicated, she can't in good conscience let the other woman make it alone.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All right. Let me know when you want to stop to eat. You're welcome to the bed when we get back to Megaton, though."

---

The journey northward is, as Ellen said, a long one. There aren't a lot of places on Earths that've reached the industrial phase with so profoundly little light pollution; only the gibbous moon and the stars light the night sky. For the sake of not putting a foot wrong in the middle of nowhere, Ellen keeps her Pip-Boy's flashlight on. It helps. It's not enough to give a real warning of oncoming molerats or the two giant scorpions that show up out of nowhere when the women sit down to eat, but it helps.

By the time they reach the gates of Megaton, the scorpions are long dead, a pack of vicious, starveling dogs has been dispatched, and Alyx has been introduced to bloatflies and how to kill them (answer: lots). The rocky, brush-tangled ground rises up to meet sharply angled walls of ribbed steel patched together by dozens of hands over the years. "Here we go," Ellen says as the city's primary Protectron heaves into view. "That's Deputy Weld, he guards the gates."

"WELCOME TO MEGATON. COMMENCING THREAT ASSESSMENT."

"He does that to everyone."

[vance_prime]

At least the robot's not making any move to frisk them or beat them over the head. That puts it a step above the CPs in City 17. Alyx can't hide her uneasiness, though.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Threat level minimal. Open the gates. Open the gates. Welcome to Megaton."

The huge corrugated metal door slides slowly upwards with a creaking, grinding sound, revealing the downward-sloping path into the crater's heart.

"Well, like he said," says Ellen, stepping in, "welcome to Megaton. That's my house to the left, and Sheriff Burke's is to the right. We'll be going to Moira at Craterside Supply in the morning to give her the widget."