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]

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."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo takes the sketches in his hand, lifting his head fractionally at Ellen's request.

"-sure."

Probably best not to ask why until later.

"Sounds simple enough. Fair warning, you step into any of these buildings, I won't be able to cover you. -you still got your radio?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "And the T-minus unit, in case the radio fails," she says. "If I have to go into the buildings I'll save it for last, and try to use the opportunity to get some extra help. Alyx promised me I could borrow her robot if I needed extra backup."

[boston_bruiser]

"D0G, huh? We oughta be alright if he tags along."

He places the sketches back on the table, slinging his carbine across his back and taking Patience in hand.

"Ready when you are. Got a preference for which of my people tag along with you?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"None whatsoever. You've been with them since Niagara. I don't even know their names yet," says Ellen. "Who do you suggest?"

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo leans against the table, rubbing his jaw. His response comes within a few seconds.

"Hector, Josepha, and Kate. I'll point 'em out. Hector fights like a fuckin' wildcat, and Josepha's a solid shooter, through and through. Kate ain't seen anything real bad with us, but she don't seem like a flake to me. Al's an okay guy, but sometimes he freezes when shit gets heated. You don't need that goin' in there. Only problem is I can't see the double-aught buck Hector packs for his shotgun doing much damage to the gearheads."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Maybe the household models, but there's not a lot of those roaming the grounds," Ellen admits. "And I'm not about to issue a plasma weapon to someone who's used to shotguns; it'd take him too long to get used to. What's Josepha good with?"

[boston_bruiser]

"Rifles. Give her a good AR and she'll make good shots out to 200, 300 yards. With some proper training and practice, she could probably make shots out to 500. She might make a good machinegunner, but there ain't a lot of those goin' around."

He rubs his chin, then points as an idea comes to him.

"Hector's good with demo, though. Good throwing arm, doesn't waste frags. Comes down to it, you could do worse than giving him a few plasma grenades."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"We've got those," Ellen says. "And a number of pulse grenades- not many, they're for emergencies. They create localized EMPs; they're basically an escape plan if the robots get too close. If he's good with those I'll see if we can't step up his shotgun ammo a little bit and give him some of the high explosives to carry."

[boston_bruiser]

"Sounds good to me. You want to head out now, or try and get some more people from Bar?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'd like to try for Bar first," says Ellen. "A mole people robot is easier to explain than a previously unknown design suddenly appearing on the GA grounds."