Drew
felt nervous. It perhaps had something to do with the patrolling
Protectrons that,
as
far as he knew, were hostile.
Or,
it could be the fact that the old Robco plant
marked the next big
step
in his life, one that he wasn’t sure if
he
was truly ready to take.
From
where
he was hiding behind an
old truck and trailer, he could only see two of
the robots.
One of them was missing an arm and
the other one had a cracked glass
canopy.
While
Protectrons weren’t the fastest or most heavily armed type of robot
out there, they were still dangerous. Their
lasers could severely
burn,
and if they
got lucky with their aim
they
could easily
kill.
Drew
knew he could shoot the robots
and
be done with it. However,
he
would rather not damage or destroy them if he didn’t have to. They
could be useful in keeping a watch over the place as they already had
been
for
the last two
centuries.
Then
again, they might attack him and melt his face off, and
he was rather fond of his face.
“Just shoot the things. You
can repair them later,” he muttered to himself as he gripped his
laser rifle tighter.
“But repairing them costs
time and resources,” he argued with himself. “Resources that I
can’t afford to waste.”
Drew peeked back out of cover
and took a good long look around, taking note of where everything was
from the patrolling robots to the old rusted cars, and that wasn’t
to mention the pre-war military tank that was just sitting there out
in the open. He figured that if he was careful and quick, he could
use them as temporary cover. All he had to do was get close enough to
trigger their response routines. If they greeted him instead of
shooting him then he knew that he was on a winner. From there,
reprogramming them with the help of his Pipboy would be easy.
“Here goes nothing, I guess.”
Clutching
his modified laser rifle, he
moved out of cover behind the trailer and hurried towards the nearest
car, squatting down behind it. The
closest
Protectron
gave him no mind and continued along
its
preset path with
its
recognizable
robotic waddle. It
made them look weak and somewhat
goofy,
which made it all too easy to underestimate the potential
danger
they posed.
Keeping his head down, Drew
moved from car to car as he made his way closer to the machine. The
fact that it hadn’t reacted gave him hope that it was simply a
parking attendant robot. If that was the case then it likely wasn’t
aggressive. At least not without provocation. Then again, like a lot
of robots, its coding could have easily developed faults which often
resulted in turning the robot hostile. Thus far, that didn’t seem
to be the case here.
He waited and watched as the
robot clunked towards the car he was hiding behind. When it was only
a few feet away, he took in a breath before he called out to it.
“Hello!”
He
waited for a response but the Protectron continued to clank along as
though it either hadn’t heard him, didn’t care, or simply didn’t
understand.
Cautiously, Drew stood up and
observed the robot. At first, it continued on without a care in the
world before it finally stopped dead in its tracks. Drew held his
breath as the machine then slowly and awkwardly turned around to face
him. He anticipated it turning nasty on him. If it did, then he
planned on dropping back down behind cover. Thankfully, though, it
didn’t.
“Move along, please. No
loi-tering.”
Drew smiled, satisfied that it
wasn’t going to shoot him. With that burning question solved, he
made his way over towards the main building. He wasn’t sure what
parking attendant robots were doing at an old robot factory. They
were usually at pre-war stores such as a Super Duper Mart, not on
private property. He supposed it was possible that it had somehow
found its way here from elsewhere, but no matter what its origin he
decided to simply leave it alone.
Well, at least for the time
being.
The
front doors
were
locked
and there was no keyhole so
he couldn’t pick it with a bobby pin.
Instead, it
was
protected by a terminal and the doors
themselves
were
thick steel, probably reinforced. The terminal was an easy hack and
thankfully the doors
hadn’t seized, meaning they
opened, albeit with a grind and a
rather unpleasant screeching of metal.
Drew
stepped inside where he
found a typical reception area complete with a
desk,
desk
fan, an
old
rotary
dial telephone,
and
a
desktop
computer.
He sat down behind the
desk and
decided to check the inventory. Unfortunately,
most of the database was corrupted. This
meant
that
he would have to do things
the old-fashioned way and go
exploring.
He
just hoped that like outside, any patrolling robots he
happened to stumble across were
friendly.
Drew
made his way out
of the foyer through
another set of double
doors.
Behind it was a long crusty
hallway
that
didn’t look like it
had been touched in decades. The
walls were stained with only an echo of old paint and
the tiles were covered in a thick
layer
of dust and grime.
He walked forwards, peeking
through the doors one by one. The first on the left was a utility
cupboard and the one on the right was a bathroom. The next one on his
right was a small room filled with old boxes. Curious, he headed
inside and opened one up to find they were full of holotapes.
Intrigued, he popped one in his Pipboy and discovered they were
programming tapes for Assaultrons.
He
closed up the boxes, stepped
back out into the hallway, and
continued on
to the next door before
heading inside.
“Interesting.”
Unlike
the previous rooms,
this
one was larger and had a story to tell.
On his left was a security door complete with a
terminal
and
on his right was what appeared to be a grimy makeshift
workbench.
Someone
had clearly been here at some point in the relatively
recent
past, though
judging by the grime ‘recent’ could mean a decade, or it
could mean fifty
years.
Drew
turned his attention to the security door terminal. Like
the front doors, he easily hacked
it. The door clicked
open and he stepped
through into a much
bigger
room. All over were
half-assembled General
Atomics Gutsy
robots
as
well as various other
parts
all
scattered
around haphazardly.
“I wonder what you’re doing
here in a Robco plant?” he asked himself as he wiped some grime off
the shell of the nearest one.
Noting a terminal on a desk
in the corner, he decided to check it. It told him everything he
needed to know. These Gutsies had faulty engine thrusters, and it was
quite clear that they blamed General Atomics. From what he could tell
they were manufacturing Gutsies here under license to be used across
the border in Canada. The log entry was dated three days before the
end of the world.
As
Drew stepped away from the terminal, he noticed something tucked away
in a
dark
corner.
Using his Pipboy light, he found that it was an old Assaultron with
what appeared to be a modified head laser.
“Oh, shit,” he uttered as
he stepped closer. “Look at that.”
The head laser was definitely
an aftermarket addition. It looked cumbersome and unwieldy, but there
was something about it that also looked powerful.
Whoever had modified it was
long gone, probably decades ago. He plugged his Pipboy into the
service jack and ran a quick diagnostic. He found that it hadn’t
been active for the last fifty years. Whoever it belonged to was
probably long dead by now.
Drew took a step back as he
realized that this was the first Assaultron he’d seen since Izzy.
Izzy had been a good companion
that he’d had before he’d met Gemma, Amy, and Jack. For a while
it had been just the two of them, wandering around searching for a
place to call home. For a robot, she’d had a spot-on sense of humor
and often felt more alive than some of the humans they came across.
Unfortunately, she had been destroyed by raiders a year back. They
had attacked Colville and she had been one of their victims. She had
been blown to pieces, her main processor reduced to little more than
dust. As strange as it was, he sometimes missed her almost as much as
he missed his lover, Gemma.
Deciding he’d seen enough for
today, Drew stepped out of the room and re-locked it, before heading
back out of the factory. After resealing the front doors he casually
walked across the parking lot, once more being accosted by a
patrolling Protectron for loitering.
The
place definitely had
promise, but he knew
he’d
have
to explore
more just to be certain. He would have
done it
today, but unfortunately, he’d
had a late start due to having to help fix one of the patrol robots
back at Colville. There
was also
an
old bus on the highway that
he
wanted to
check
for salvage. If
it was worthwhile, then he would return.
If not, then the bus would be forgotten.
Thirty
minutes later and he almost walked
right past
it since the
bus
wasn’t on the highway, but
in
a ditch. How
long it had been there, Drew didn’t know, though
apart
from a crumpled front and
smashed windows,
it
looked to be in fairly good condition.
The
inside was a different story, however.
The upholstery was half rotted away,
though there was a distinct lack of any bodies, skeletal or
otherwise. That didn’t bode well for the likelihood of there being
any salvage.
After
a
minute or
so
of searching, he found absolutely nothing other than an old smashed
pocket watch. While
some would probably see no worth in it, the internal
components
could
prove useful in the future.
As
he was stepping back
out
of the bus, he heard
the telltale
roar of a Yao
Guai in
the distance.
He turned, ready
to defend himself if necessary, only to freeze,
his eyes widening at what he saw.
There,
bounding towards the mutated bear
was
a huge green Deathclaw.
Not
only was it bigger than any he had ever seen in his life, but
it
was also
moving
at
a
terrifying
speed. With
a claw raised, it
swatted
the
Yao Guai away
like it was nothing,
sending it hurtling several
feet before
it landed in a crumpled mess.
Drew
continued to stare as the massive beast strode over to its
fallen prey
and squatted, hunching over the now dead creature
ready
to eat its kill.
Both
had to have been around five
or
six hundred
feet away, but even at that distance, the Deathclaw was terrifying as
hell.
After a few moments of chowing
down on its caught meal, the large green creature suddenly stopped
then raised its head and began to sniff at the air.
Drew felt the hairs on his arms
stand up as not a moment later the monster turned its head towards
him.
“Oh, fuck.”
Quickly, he retreated back
inside the bus, grabbing his laser rifle off his back, clutching it
tightly against his chest as he made his way slowly towards the rear.
With a held breath, he slowly and cautiously peered out the back
window before he released it with a sigh of relief.
It was looking back down at its
kill as though it hadn’t noticed him. He wasn’t sure how true it
was, but he had heard that Deathclaws had poor eyesight, which
appeared to be true. In the past, he hadn’t put himself in a
situation to be seen, let alone stand and gawk like an idiot as he
had just done.
The
creature stood back up and sniffed at the air a
second time,
causing
him to duck down behind
cover.
Slowly, he peered back over the rear
seats, studying the creature that had to be in the
order of ten feet or more in
height.
That was when he noticed what
appeared to be a
large
growth on its chest.
As
though sensing his gaze, the Deathclaw
turned its head and
its
eyes seemed
to lock
onto his.
For
a moment, he swore it was staring into his very soul.
“Shit,”
he hissed
as
he ducked back
down
as quickly as he could.
Right at that moment, the bus
was probably the safest place to be. His only hope was that it hadn’t
noticed him like the first time. Unfortunately, a minute or so later
he began to hear the thumps of heavy footfalls and they were not only
getting louder but they were very clearly getting closer.
The giant green Deathclaw was
coming his way.
As
quietly as he could, Drew hid beneath one of the seats and held his
breath. The footsteps stopped right outside the bus and not
a moment later he
heard a loud creak. Daring to peek, he saw
giant
clawed
green
hands
were gripped onto the inside
wall
through the glass-less rear
window,
its
claws digging into what was left of the rear seats. He
could hear its heavy breathing and the scraping of its claws against
the metal as it shifted its weight, probably to get a better look
inside. Drew knew that if it wanted to, it could easily tear through
the shell of the bus like it was nothing, yet it didn’t, which
he was definitely thankful for.
As
gently and
as quietly as he could, he twisted
the power knob on his custom laser rifle, putting it up to full
power. He would quickly burn through his shots and he risked burning
out its beam emitter, but a few good hits and he hoped he’d be able
to take the beast down.
He seriously doubted it,
though, and knew if he found himself in a position where he needed to
shoot it, he was probably already dead.
He watched with some relief as
the claws retreated, followed by the welcome sound of the monster’s
pounding footsteps as they grew quieter and more distant. Even when
he couldn’t hear it anymore he still dared not move. The last thing
he needed was to be chased by the monstrosity.
It
wasn’t
until it started to get dark that he finally made a move. His body
felt stiff from the
lack of movement, and being cramped
beneath the bus seat for the last hour
or
so
certainly
hadn’t
helped matters.
He
let out an unintentional groan as his muscles protested at
the movement.
After peering outside and
finding the coast was clear, he quickly departed the old bus and
jogged up the highway back towards town. It didn’t escape his
notice that the Yao Guai carcass was gone. All the better as it
wouldn’t bring any other unwanted predators his way.
His jog soon turned to a
full-on sprint as he heard a roar from somewhere behind him. Whether
it was the green Deathclaw or something else he didn’t wait to find
out.
Thankfully, nothing chased him,
but that didn’t mean he slowed down.
The
presence of Deathclaws
in the area did put a damper on his plans. It
made moving his stuff between town and the factory a lot more
problematic. His initial plan was to fix up some Gutsies
and Protectrons and have them help him move,
and while he could still do that, he would need to fix up more robots
and
arm them to the teeth. The Deathclaw
had been a
lot bigger than normal
and even
regular-sized
ones could take several cells worth of laser fire. He dreaded to
think what it would take to bring
that monster down. It had to have been eleven
or
twelve
feet at least. Maybe
more.
He
could only hope that it was the only one in the region, though he
doubted it.
In
a way, it had changed his mission. He had wanted to set up shop in
the old factory and sell robots to the settlements that dotted the
region, but now he knew that he had to remove the new threat before
it became a legitimate problem. If there was a nest then he had to
find it and destroy it. He had to drive the Deathclaws
out of the region and the old Robco factory was the key to achieving
that goal.
Drew
knew that he was going to have to get
to work sooner than he had planned. It had been his intention on
taking things slow so
as
to not burn himself out, but now he didn’t really have that luxury.
While Colville itself was heavily fortified, there were other
settlements including farms in the region that were not prepared at
all for a Deathclaw
attack, especially not from
one
that was over
twelve
feet tall.
He’d
seen what Deathclaws
could do, he’d seen them wipe out a settlement down south. He
didn’t want that to happen up
here,
not when he knew he could prevent it.
It
was time to stop dreaming of getting the Robco plant
back up and running and actually do
it. It
was time to build an army to
defend the region.
He just hoped he could do it
before any settlements were turned into a Deathclaw banquet.