Voodoo - Serendipity

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Philly is, as post-apocalyptic metropoli go, a well-maintained and well-patrolled city. This is not a difficult standard to reach, however, and it tends to fall art in the face of overwhelming wildlife.

Hippos are pretty damn overwhelming. And they've apparently been sighted all over the southern roads out of the city heading towards DC.

One of the older market folks, a gray-haired woman with a face like badly preserved leather, has indicated that the easiest way to avoid the hippos is to head north into the city a ways and make for the northeast part of town. There's apparently a southbound road that swings around the worst of the hippo area and doesn't cost too much travel time by comparison.

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Not just at the moment," says the one on the left, with a trace more humor to his staticky voice than before. "But we may be able to get a message through regardless. Can I ask what it is you want with her?"

[boston_bruiser]

"I'm one of her mole-people. Got locked outta the mole-people locker. Hoping she can set things right."

As a pre-emptive measure against Looks from Josepha, Hector, Al, and Kate:

"Long story. Half'a it's a joke. Don't mind it."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The armored figures glance at each other a moment, even as the Looks are cut off at the knees. Eventually the one on the left says, "If you'll come with us back to camp, I believe we can get your message straight to her without trouble. And you'll run less risk of another robot attack."

[boston_bruiser]

"Lead the-"

It's the phrasing that makes him double-take.

"-the fuck? She's here?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"This is a scouting mission sent to sound out the General Atomics International ruins and determine their fitness or lack thereof for a full reclamation operation," says the one on the right. "At Elder Lyons' request, Senior Paladin Tristan put his most successful advance scout in command."

"So, yes. She's here."

[boston_bruiser]

"-well fuck a duck."

It's an unexpected surprise, but certainly not an unpleasant one - once they've got this Philly business wrapped up (because he's already here, so why not help kill stuff?), they don't have to make their way all the way down to the Citadel to get his situation unfucked.

He waves them on. "H'kay. Make like Earthlings and take me to your leader."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"This way," says the one on the left, and gestures. "It's not far."

As the group starts moving, Josepha makes her way up to just behind Voodoo. "You know these guys?" she murmurs.

[boston_bruiser]

"These guys? No. The Brotherhood? I do favors for 'em from time to time. Nothin' too fancy."

He glances over his shoulder.

"That a problem?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No, no problem," says Josepha. "It's just- they're a little intimidating. I've never seen power armor in action before."

[boston_bruiser]

"First time for everything. Can't say I'd ever use a suit myself, but there you go."

A beat, then to the knights:

"Those things have load-bearing servos in 'em, right? So you ain't throwing your back out with every step."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I would have a harder time carrying a forty-pound sack of mutfruit," says one of the Knights. "And this isn't even the good armor. The servos in T-51b suits leave you as agile as if you were wearing your everyday fatigues."

"Not to mention some of the things the Order of the Shield has in development," says the other one. "But that's... not for outside concern."

"And we're almost at camp, anyway," adds the first. "Ahead, there. In the old Red Rocket station."

Red Rocket used to be an East Coast chain of refueling stations; one couldn't call them gas stations, as they were aimed squarely at the surging number of atomic car drivers. Their buildings tended to be rather more solid and sturdy than Poseidon Energy's gas stations, and often included a separate garage for getting damaged vehicles well out of the way. This one is no exception; unlike most of the other former businesses in this area, there's a light winking from the windows of the second floor of said garage.

[boston_bruiser]

-well. If it's a sniper, they're probably friendly.

In the "won't shoot you on sight" sense, anyway.

Nevertheless, he raises a hand in greeting as they approach.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

You could say that. There's a long moment in which no one so much as moves.

And then from the second floor window, there's a disbelieving call of, "Voodoo?"

[boston_bruiser]

"Yuuuup."

He shrugs - what else is there to say?

"Long story, and I think you can guess 'bout half of it."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There's a muttering noise from above. Then Ellen says, "Bring him up here. I'm not coming down."

"There's more than just-"

"Bring them all up here, I'm fine with that."

[boston_bruiser]

It's about as easily said as done. The Red Rocket isn't terribly spacious, what with all the usual postwar debris and detritus, but it isn't terribly cramped, either. As Voodoo reaches the top of the stairs behind the knights, whatever greeting he was about to give dies in his throat as he catches sight of Painless's necklace.

It and Painless both get long, long looks.

Voodoo looks to Ellen and points at Parker.

"Local?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Our guide," says Ellen.

"Dentist," says Painless, just a touch aggrieved. "This is advertising."

"What he said," says Ellen, and smiles. "Hi, Voodoo. Should I even ask how you wound up here?"

[boston_bruiser]

Painless's tone rubs Voodoo just a touch the wrong way, and he turns to look him dead in the eye. "When I'm talkin' to you, pal? You'll know it."

Then, turning back to Ellen:

"Door malfunction. Started north of Niagara Falls. Was hoping you could help me out after this factory thing gets squared away."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I was going to go look for help with the recon anyway," admits Ellen, as Painless slinks off to go fume in a side office somewhere. "The General Atomics grounds have fairly intact walls and a really disturbing number of active robots still running security. It's going to be rough to get in far enough to determine whether the building's worth trying to reclaim or whether it's just robots defending a useless corpse."

[boston_bruiser]

"Can't promise anything 'til I get a look at the area. But if the terrain's right, I can provide overwatch over the wall," he says, patting Patience's stock. "How many shooters you bring along with you?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods towards the Knights. "I've got Kang and Conklin here," she says, "and Jerald's working on a sentrybot that we were able to capture- we brought it down without damaging it too badly, so he's reprogramming its friend-or-foe recognition in our favor. This was GA world headquarters, though. The grounds are the size of a prewar military base. We've got a fairly basic map of how it looked before the war, if that'd help."

[boston_bruiser]

"Hell yeah, that'd help. Let's take a look."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods, but turns to the Knights first. "Take care of my friend's friends," she says. "I don't know who they are, but they've come a long way, and we can spare it."

"Damn. Here I thought I'd finally get to meet your mole people," says one of the Knights. "Ma'am."

"One should be enough," says Ellen. "Now."

"Yes, ma'am." There's some clanking and saluting, and then the two Knights lead Josepha, Kate, Hector and Al back down the stairs.

Ellen lets out a sigh and gestures towards a Formica-topped card table. "This was drawn by a woman recovered from the alien ship in orbit," she says. "Apparently she was an executive here before the aliens kidnapped her in late 2077. I didn't know how much your companions there would be able to deal with- I hope that's not a problem."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo requisitions a nearby stool and positions it in front of the map before taking a seat, unslinging Patience and setting it a little to the side of the map. "They ain't my usual crew, but they've got the right stuff."

He's quiet as he looks over the map, tracing various routes through it with his finger. The grounds are indeed expansive - there are what look to be various testing facilities and outlying buildings lining the roads through the compound, with the centerpiece being a massive, sprawling building that is easily big enough to be combination factory and corporate office - it's hard to tell specifics with a map like this.

He shakes his head. "Man. What a fuckin' doozy. The sightlines ain't gonna be perfect, but if the terrain works, I can give you overwatch."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'll take your word for it. You know them better than I do," says Ellen.

She nods at Voodoo's comment. "This is an in-and-out survey mission to get as much of the grounds mapped out as physically possible," she says. "I'll be wearing my father's old Pip-Boy so I don't have to stop to do any of the mapping. As nice as it would be to have things to bring back, that's not the mission objective, so I'm going to be traveling quickly- makes it easier to avoid the robots and any security emplacements on the buildings. About the only places I'm likely to stop, assuming they've still got structural integrity and the robots aren't too close on my tail, are here in the corporate offices and here in R&D. RobCo's plant in the Capital Wasteland still had a semi-viable mainframe that we were able to pull data off, so the Order of the Quill sent me with a couple of hardware widgets to attach in the event that any of the central computers still had power. The widgets can transmit to our terminal here, so I only need enough time in those areas to persuade a terminal to activate and accept the widget before moving on."

Rustling through some more papers, she comes up with another set of sketches. "Our contact from the alien ship gave us as much as she could in terms of robot specs. Turned out very handy, no pun intended. Unfortunately she was an accounting executive, rather than a manufacturing one, but... well, she knew most of the products. Including the robobrains, which... can I ask you a favor? If there's more than one kind of 'bot closing on my position, and one of them is a robobrain, put the robobrain down first. As hard as you can. And note how many of them you kill if you can manage it, I'd appreciate tha."