Judgment Calls
Jul. 5th, 2018 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aaaaaaaagh_skyLivesey had good news: there were no humans anywhere at the castle, unless you counted the dead ones.
... all right, that wasn't as good as it sounded.
That wasn't good news at all.
Well, maybe a little. The dead humans were the work of more mirelurks than Ellen had ever seen in one place, according to the robot's count. The building on the shore- Fort Independence, according to the pre-War maps- had previously been an extremely stout-walled fortification occupied by some kind of organized group of humans. Livesey had found signs, locked doors, electrical wiring, a radio control console, and even a few flags, although neither the robot nor any of the Scribes recognized the flags' rifle-and-lightning emblem. But there was a massive gap in the outer walls, rimmed with broken stone blocks and a few alarmingly melted ones, and now there were mirelurks everywhere.
Scribe Pabodie frowned at the description of the melted stone and went off to where the 'lurk carcasses were drying. When she came back her face was grim. "Paladin," she said, "that behemoth 'lurk we killed had acid glands under its mandibles. I suspect that's what smashed in the castle wall."
"Or possibly another one of the same size," Ellen suggested.
"That's also possible. I don't know that I'd be able to fit two creatures that size into such a small region of ocean, though. Anything that big has to eat an awful lot."
Ellen remembered the behemoth in the ruins of Jury Street, and shuddered.
"On the other hand, if there are as many 'lurks as Livesey says..." Pabodie gazed out over the water. "Even the smaller 'lurks have to eat, ma'am. We've seen mirelurks, blue mirelurks, and sea centaurs here. Plus the behemoth. It might just be that the waters around here are top-heavy on food organisms, and they cluster here to take advantage of it."
"So if we want to move our base of operations into that castle we should assume the worst in terms of opposition," Ellen said. Pabodie nodded. "All right. I'm thinking. We don't have a lot of other options unless we want to push a lot farther north, is the thing. Ervin checked out the buildings on that southernmost peninsula. It's some kind of pre-War wastewater processing facility, but it's got people farming the grounds, and it doesn't look like it's operational. Not to mention that there's next to no security or fortification in the vicinity."
"So if we were to push the locals out-"
"Which we're not going to do," Ellen said.
"Right, ma'am, but if we were going to do it, we'd have to build our own walls as well as any gun emplacements or turrets," said Pabodie.
Ellen nodded. "There are locations further up the shore with visible human populations," she said. "One junkyard with what looks like a couple of suits of power armor on the premises; we're going to need to check that out, but it's not a suitable base of operations either. One small settlement a little further north than that. Then there's a stretch of uninhabited coastline with ordinary residential and commercial pre-War buildings, and then the castle. The old maps of the area indicate that if we keep going north there's a pre-War military base and an airport. It'll take us a while to surveil those locations from here."
"There's worse things than being located close to farmers, ma'am."
"If nothing else they're not going to be raiders," Ellen agreed. "I don't know how they handle things here, but the only people in the Capital who were ever comfortable with a large mirelurk population nearby all lived in Rivet City..."
She looked out over the water again.
"... where they hunted the mirelurks on a regular basis. All right, we're going to have to talk to these people before blasting our way into anywhere."
... all right, that wasn't as good as it sounded.
That wasn't good news at all.
Well, maybe a little. The dead humans were the work of more mirelurks than Ellen had ever seen in one place, according to the robot's count. The building on the shore- Fort Independence, according to the pre-War maps- had previously been an extremely stout-walled fortification occupied by some kind of organized group of humans. Livesey had found signs, locked doors, electrical wiring, a radio control console, and even a few flags, although neither the robot nor any of the Scribes recognized the flags' rifle-and-lightning emblem. But there was a massive gap in the outer walls, rimmed with broken stone blocks and a few alarmingly melted ones, and now there were mirelurks everywhere.
Scribe Pabodie frowned at the description of the melted stone and went off to where the 'lurk carcasses were drying. When she came back her face was grim. "Paladin," she said, "that behemoth 'lurk we killed had acid glands under its mandibles. I suspect that's what smashed in the castle wall."
"Or possibly another one of the same size," Ellen suggested.
"That's also possible. I don't know that I'd be able to fit two creatures that size into such a small region of ocean, though. Anything that big has to eat an awful lot."
Ellen remembered the behemoth in the ruins of Jury Street, and shuddered.
"On the other hand, if there are as many 'lurks as Livesey says..." Pabodie gazed out over the water. "Even the smaller 'lurks have to eat, ma'am. We've seen mirelurks, blue mirelurks, and sea centaurs here. Plus the behemoth. It might just be that the waters around here are top-heavy on food organisms, and they cluster here to take advantage of it."
"So if we want to move our base of operations into that castle we should assume the worst in terms of opposition," Ellen said. Pabodie nodded. "All right. I'm thinking. We don't have a lot of other options unless we want to push a lot farther north, is the thing. Ervin checked out the buildings on that southernmost peninsula. It's some kind of pre-War wastewater processing facility, but it's got people farming the grounds, and it doesn't look like it's operational. Not to mention that there's next to no security or fortification in the vicinity."
"So if we were to push the locals out-"
"Which we're not going to do," Ellen said.
"Right, ma'am, but if we were going to do it, we'd have to build our own walls as well as any gun emplacements or turrets," said Pabodie.
Ellen nodded. "There are locations further up the shore with visible human populations," she said. "One junkyard with what looks like a couple of suits of power armor on the premises; we're going to need to check that out, but it's not a suitable base of operations either. One small settlement a little further north than that. Then there's a stretch of uninhabited coastline with ordinary residential and commercial pre-War buildings, and then the castle. The old maps of the area indicate that if we keep going north there's a pre-War military base and an airport. It'll take us a while to surveil those locations from here."
"There's worse things than being located close to farmers, ma'am."
"If nothing else they're not going to be raiders," Ellen agreed. "I don't know how they handle things here, but the only people in the Capital who were ever comfortable with a large mirelurk population nearby all lived in Rivet City..."
She looked out over the water again.
"... where they hunted the mirelurks on a regular basis. All right, we're going to have to talk to these people before blasting our way into anywhere."