Drew awoke and stared up at the
ceiling high above. It took a mere few moments for him to remember
that he had spent the night with Gemma.
Taking
a look around the room, he saw she was gone. He
sat up and yawned with a stretch before he slowly climbed off the
mattress.
Last
night had gone very well,
but there had also been
quite the
shock. He had discovered
that he had some trauma from when Charlotte had wanted to eat him. He
knew it was something that
was going to be with him for a long time. The
only positive was that he was now aware of it and he was thankful
that it had happened
with Gemma and
not with any of the others. He knew he could trust her to help him
overcome it.
Drew
headed out of the room and made his way up to the bathroom where he
took a piss and a shit. Ten
minutes later, he was
stepping into the cafeteria where he found Gemma and Veronica sat
talking in
their usual corner.
“Morning,”
he greeted.
Gemma
smiled at him. “Good morning, Drew.”
He made his way into the kitchen and grabbed some mutfruit before
returning to the cafeteria where he sat near the two.
“So, how was your morning?” he asked.
Veronica answered. “We caught breakfast, then gave the corpse to
Jack.”
“Why?” he asked. “What for?”
“He said he wanted the materials,” Gemma answered.
The doors opened and Amy stepped in with Sarah.
“Morning,” Drew greeted.
“Morning,” the two said together as they made their way inside.
“Either of you two got any plans today?” Drew asked.
Amy answered. “No, but I do have something I need to ask.”
“Go ahead.”
“Can we head into town at some point?”
“What for?”
“I
wanna grab some more supplies.”
“Like?” Drew asked.
“Like
some more food so we can eat
something other than
mutfruit
and radstag.”
Drew looked at Sarah. “How about you?”
“I’ll come, sure.”
“I’ll have to ask Jack to see if he wants to come as well.”
Drew looked over at Gemma and Veronica. “Sorry, but you two
probably should stay here.”
“It’s for the best,” Veronica said. “I think the townfolk
would probably shoot at us.”
Drew made for the door. “I’ll go see Jack and see if he wants to
come now.” He paused as he glanced back. “Actually, this gives me
an opportunity. We’ll take two Gutsy’s with us and see if we can
sell them in town to Devon’s Caravan or maybe to the town.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Amy said.
* * *
Four hours later, Drew, Amy, Sarah, and Jack had arrived at Colville
with two Gutsy’s in tow. Normally the walk was just over three
hours, but Sarah wasn’t quite as fast on her feet as the rest of
them.
Regardless, it had been a pleasant walk, especially now that they
knew they didn’t have to worry about being a green deathclaw’s
dinner.
“This is Colville,” Drew told Sarah.
“Yeah, I know. I’ve been here once. I spoke to the resident
doctor and he was nasty to me for no reason.”
“Maybe saw you as a threat,” Amy said.
Jack agreed. “You are one of those fancy vault doctors after all.”
“Yeah,” Sarah accepted, “you’re probably right about that.”
The group made their way down the main street towards Devon’s
Caravan Company building, the biggest caravan in the region. Unlike
other caravans which were mostly made up of single traders, DCC, as
it was also known, had ten caravans under its belt, all in near
constant rotation around the surrounding settlements, and some even
moved in and out of the region.
“Wait out here,” Drew said as they stopped in front of the DCC
building.
He stepped inside and made his way to the front desk. The
receptionist, Janice, looked up at him from her computer screen.
“Oh, hey Drew. Need something?”
“Is the boss in? I have a proposition.”
“Yeah, he’s in. I’ll call you through.”
Drew waited as she pressed down the intercom on her desk.
“Yes, what is it?”
“Mister Devon, sorry to disturb you, but Drew is here.”
“Send him right through.”
“You can go through,” she told him.
“Thanks, Janice.”
Drew stepped through into Devon’s office which lay just off to the
right. Devon stood up and gestured to the seat opposite, which Drew
promptly took.
“What can I do you for?” Devon asked as he sat back down. “You
want a caravan to frequent that Robco plant you’ve taken over, or
are you here for another reason?”
“Another reason.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I have two Gutsies outside and I was wondering if you were
looking for some robotic caravan guards?”
Devon stroked the stubble on his chin. “Only two?”
“For now, yeah.”
“I’m interested, sure. I could do with phasing out those butler
robots. Replacing them with something more formidable against the
wildlife would definitely be a boon. Heard rumors of deathclaws in
the area and then there’s those Yao Guai.”
“How many robots do you have?”
Devon raised his hand and began to count them off on his fingers.
“Well, I have three of those army butler robots, fifteen butler
robots and the rest are human guards. The butler robots aren’t
nearly as tough as the army ones but I use them because I don’t
really have any other choice.”
“So you have fifteen Handies and three Gutsies,” Drew said. “No
Protectrons?”
“Nah, walk way too slow. If I had one of them as a caravan guard
and it would take fifty years for them to get anywhere.”
“They can walk fast when they need to,” Drew said. “Though they
do become a little unstable at higher speeds and bits tend to start
falling off.”
Devon checked the clock. “Listen, can I make an exchange?”
“Exchange?”
“I’ll give you a butler robot or two and you give caps-off
purchase price of those Gutsies.”
Drew considered his offer. Having access to Handies would be a
benefit. He could profile and duplicate their software. They were
certainly less irritating than Gutsies, but honestly not by much.
“Okay,” Drew said. “It’s a deal.”
“All the caravans are currently out, but I should have two back
here at the depot by the end of the day. Do you think you could come
back in let’s say… Five hours?”
Drew checked the time. It was just after one in the afternoon, which
meant if he waited it would be dark or at the very least it would be
getting dark by the time they got back to the Robco plant. Still,
since the Greenclaws had proven to be non-hostile, at least mostly,
he wasn’t nearly as worried about his safety. That didn’t mean
there weren’t dangers, though, particularly in the dark.
“Sure, I can come back in five hours,” Drew said.
“That’s great,” Devon said standing up and reaching over with
his hand.
Drew stood up and shook it. “I’ll see you in five hours, then.”
“Look forward to it. We’ll make the exchange then. Just one more
question, though. How much?”
“With the exchange?”
“Yeah.”
“Two thousand caps.”
“Okay, sure. Sounds very reasonable. That for both or separately.”
“That’s the full price. Honestly, I don’t know if I could even
carry more caps than that around with me.”
“Well, I’ll inspect the Gutsy robots later when it’s time to
make the exchange.”
“I shall see you later,” Drew said.
“Later.”
Drew turned and left the office, giving Janice a wave as he headed
out the door.
Jack spoke first. “So, are they buying them?”
“We return in five hours and find out.”
“Five hours?” Amy asked. “Why?”
“He wants to do an exchange. We get two Handies, or ‘butler
robots’ as he calls them, and he gets a discount. But we have to
wait for one or two of the caravans to get back.”
“That sounds reasonable,” Sarah said. “But five hours is a long
time to wait.”
“It is,” Drew agreed. “But I think it will be worth it.”
“So what do we do?” Jack asked.
“First, we go get some lunch from Joey’s stall.”
“Then?” Amy asked.
“Not sure. Might go see if Jarik is in town.”
“He’ll be hanging out at the bar,” Amy said. “I don’t
really want to go in there.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want,” Drew said. “Besides
there are a few tables outside. We don’t have to go inside if you
don’t want.”
“We do if Jarik is inside.”
“I’ll ask him to come out. Then we can see if he has any updates
on our Greenclaw friends.”
Sarah looked around nervously. “You sure you should mention them
here?”
“Don’t worry. It was Jarik that named them that. Besides, all he
knows is that they’re green deathclaws.” Drew lowered his voice.
“He doesn’t know they’re sentient, though I suspect that he
suspects.”
Amy looked uncomfortable. “Do you think he knows?”
Drew shrugged. “He is the curious type, so I wouldn’t be
surprised if he hadn’t scoped out the Robco plant. Or even saw
Sekka and Axa.”
“What if he knows?”
Drew didn’t have an answer for that. It was clear that if he did,
he hadn’t gone around telling everyone, but then again that wasn’t
his style. Well, Drew didn’t know that for certain. Even though he
had lived in Paulson for years, he had always been somewhat
mysterious, never letting anyone get too close.
Finally, Drew answered. “I guess we go find out. First, though,
let’s go get lunch from Joey’s.”
The group moved away from the caravan depot and made their way
further down the street. Joey’s stall was located off a side street
in the poorer area of town. It was beyond the concrete wall that had
been constructed around the center of town, and was instead protected
by a more sporadically built timber wall.
“I stayed in this part of town,” Sarah said as they walked the
streets. “A lot bigger than most settlements down south.”
Drew concurred. “Towns like this tend to be dangerous. Filled with
ferals, predators and other equally dangerous things. Somehow this
place was spared all that horror. Well, not all of it. A lot of
people starved after the bombs fell. There were apparently riots,
killing, homes being burned to the ground. It was a scary time. A
very scary time.
Sarah was intrigued. “How come you know so much about it?”
“It’s part of the town’s history. I read it on a terminal in
the library.”
The group turned down a different street and made their way toward
the market. It was fairly busy with all different kinds of folks all
perusing the wares.
“I thought about buying something from here,” Sarah said. “But
I’m kinda fond of my jumpsuit.”
As they got into line at Joey’s stall, Drew looked at the others.
“As the one holding the caps, what do you guys want?”
“Meat-Feast burger,” Jack said instantly.
“Same,” Amy said.
“I suppose I’ll have that, too,” Sarah said.
“Then it’s four Meat-Feast burgers. What do you want to drink?”
Jack answered first again. “I would say a Nuka Cola, but they’re
rarer up here and pricey. So I guess water.”
“If they don’t have a juice drink then water for me as well,”
Amy added.
“Water,” Sarah said. “As long as it’s purified.”
“It’s all purified in Colville,” Jack told her. “All the
water runs through the purification plant which is an old converted
brewery.”
“I thought so,” Sarah said. “When I stayed here, though, my
Pipboy did detect trace amounts of radiation in the water.”
“It ain’t perfect,” Jack said. “But it’s the best we can
do.”
Slowly, they moved up the cue until it was their turn to make their
order.
“Hey, it’s Drew and the gang,” Joey said, grinning. “And an
extra soul, I see.”
“Yeah, that’s Sarah,” Drew said gesturing.
“Nice to meet you,” Joey said.
“Uh, same,” Sarah said.
“What you all having?”
“The Meaty-Feast burger. Four of them and since I see you’re all
out of berry juice we’ll have four waters as well.”
“Coming right up,” Joey said as he scooped the meat off of the
hotplate with his spatula, placing them in the homemade buns.
After taking the burgers and drinks and paying for them, the group of
four, tailed by the Gutsies made their way over to a low brick wall
and sat on it while they ate.
Finished, they handed the empty bottles back to Joey for a two-cap
return fee per bottle before they made the trip to Kalvin’s bar,
though they made a stop at Jarik’s house since it was on the way.
As expected, he wasn’t in, so they continued on to Kalvin’s bar,
his favorite haunt. Well, it was when he was in town.
As it turned out, he was in town and he was sitting outside at a
table sipping a drink.
“Well, well, well,” Jarik said as he laid eyes on them. “Look
who it is.” His eyes focused on the two Gutsies then on Sarah. “New
companions I see.”
“I built them,” Drew told him as they sat down at his table.
“The two Gutsies are about what I’d expect from your skill level,
but the girl…” He whistled. “Now she’s impressive. How long
did it take to make her?”
Drew frowned. “That’s Sarah.”
Jarik grinned like an idiot. “Well, it’s nice to meet you Sarah.
Where did he find you? You weren’t hiding out in that factory were
you?”
She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t.”
Drew explained. “She was chased by one of those Greenclaws. Found
her way to the plant.”
Jarik’s brow raised in surprise. “And she managed to get away?”
“Yes, she did,” Drew said. “Pretty impressive.”
“Impressive indeed,” Jarik said, eyeing her up. “You must be
quick on your feet.”
Sarah shrugged awkwardly. “Uh, I guess.”
Drew decided to steer the conversation. “So, heard or seen anything
lately?”
“Actually, I did. Just a few days ago I saw two Greenclaws carrying
crates in the direction of your little Robco plant.”
Jack laughed. “Seriously? They were carrying crates.”
“You’ve not been on the Med-X have you?” Amy added.
Jarik shook his head, looking straight at Drew. “Peculiar, isn’t
it?”
“Sounds it,” Drew said wanting to take the conversation in
literally any other direction. “Did you see where they went?”
“I told you. Towards your factory.”
“Well, we didn’t see them,” Drew said with a shrug.
“I’m sure you were too busy building your little robots,” Jarik
said. “I also heard a rumor in Riverside.”
“Regarding?” Drew asked.
“A scavenger apparently spied a group in power armor along the
southern highway. Nasty looking bunch.”
“Where were they headed?”
“West somewhere.”
“You think it’s Brotherhood?” Drew asked him.
“I have no idea. If they are, then you might be in trouble. They
don’t like common folk like us to have anything nice, especially
not a factory that can build robots.”
Drew knew he was right and he didn’t like it. What made it worse
was that if it was Brotherhood, then it was likely they knew of the
plant’s existence and it wouldn’t be long until a scouting team
scouted them out.
“This isn’t good news,” Drew said after a few moments. “If it
is Brotherhood, then it looks like my work is cut out for me.”
“Yeah. Might be,” Jarik agreed. “Though it might be best to
gather what you can and leave. Let them have it. There’s no way you
can win a war against the Brotherhood of Steel.”
Sarah raised her hand. “Who are the Brotherhood of Steel?”
Drew answered. “They’re a faction from down south. Rumor has it
that they were military before the great war. Now they go around
taking technology off of normal folk like us, usually by force.”
“Why?”
“Because they think the easier our lives are the more likely we’ll
start lobbing nukes at each other again. Or some such shit. They
think they’re the only ones that can be trusted with a working
toaster because we might burn ourselves with it. Can’t have us
making toast. Might end the world.”
“He’s exaggerating a bit,” Jarik told Sarah. “Suffice it to
say, if they found out he was trying to restart an old Robco plant,
they would burn a hole in his head with a laser rifle and take
control themselves.”
Sarah looked nervous. “So we’re in danger?”
“We’re jumping the gun a bit,” Drew said. “We don’t know
for certain that it’s Brotherhood or anyone else. Besides, last I
heard they weren’t doing so well. The NCR gave them a bit of a
bloody nose.”
“We should be cautious, though, right?” Sarah asked. “Just in
case?”
Amy agreed. “Yeah, we should definitely be cautious.”
Drew nodded. They were right, they did need to be cautious, but there
was also no need to abandon their new lives out of fear.
“We do what we came here to do,” Drew said. “We do the exchange
with Devon, buy some supplies, and then head home. Tomorrow, we start
working on actually bringing one of the production lines online.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jack said.
“Let me guess; you’ve been slacking?” Jarik said.
“Maybe just a little bit,” Drew said.
Jarik shook his head with a smile. “You are so dead if it does turn
out to be Brotherhood.”
Drew disagreed. “Don’t be so sure. That factory is like a
fortress and we have plenty of materials to build an army.”
“Given you have time to build it,” Jarik pointed out. “But it’s
you’re gig.”
“Yeah, it is my gig. Though I do have a favor to ask.”
“Name it.”
“Can you keep an ear out? I want to know as much about these guys
as possible.”
“Don’t worry, I plan on finding out who they are regardless.
Folks wandering around in power armor, especially in a group, is bad
news. Until we find out what their intentions are they’re a
potential threat. Much like those Greenclaws, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Of course,” Drew said. “Just like those Greenclaws.”
Jarik nodded before he stood up. “Say, do you have some time to
waste?”
“A few hours, why?”
He gestured inside. “How about a few games of Pool?”
Drew looked at the others. “You all down?”
“Sure,” Amy said.
“Definitely,” Jack added.
“What’s Pool?” Sarah asked. “I don’t have a swimsuit or
anything.”
Jarik chuckled. “I like her.”
“Come on, we’ll show you.”
* * *
A few hours later and Drew was stepping back into Devon’s Caravan’s
main office. Almost immediately, he was greeted by Janice, though she
did look concerned about something.
“Afternoon, Drew. Devon
is waiting for you in his office. You may go right through.”
“Thanks.”
He made his way to the left
into Devon’s office and the man immediately stood up and gestured
to the chair opposite.
“Please, sit down.”
Drew did so, knowing that
something was wrong. He could tell with Janice’s expression and now
with Devon’s.
“Something the matter?”
Drew asked, verbalizing his thoughts.
“A caravan’s gone
missing.”
“One of the ones that was
meant to come in?”
Devon shook his head. “No,
they’re here. But one of them always cross paths either at the rest
stop or on the southern highway. They haven’t been seen at Henry
Farm which they always stop off at. Neither were they seen at the
small settlement along that same highway. Nobody knows where they
are.”
“You mean it just
vanished?”
“Seems that way. The
settlement said they saw a bunch of folk in some kind of heavy armor
walking past with a bunch of butler robots, which is what the caravan
used as guards. Could be a coincidence.”
“Did they spot any
insignias or markings on the guys with power armor?” Drew asked.
“Power armor? You know
what they were wearing?”
“Jarik heard something
about people in power armor down that way.”
“Think it’s the same
folk?”
“Very likely, yeah.”
“Are they dangerous?”
“That’s why I asked
about markings.”
“They didn’t mention
any. Just that they were covered head to toe in heavy armor and had a
kind of wheel valve on the back. Or that’s what it apparently
looked like.”
“Definitely power armor,
then,” Drew mused unhappily. “Which means if it is Brotherhood of
Steel, then those Handies were most likely yours and that caravan is
gone. Even so, Brotherhood don’t usually pal around with Handies,
they pal around with Sentry bots or Gutsies.”
“You mean they’re
dead?”
Drew nodded. “Though they
don’t usually go for Handy robots. They’re low down on their list
of acquired technology. It’s likely that they need them for spare
parts for Gutsies. That, or they’re gonna reprogram and refit them
with heavier weapons.”
“What do you think I
should do?” Devon asked.
“It’s gonna cost you
more in wages, but I suggest human guards only for the time being. No
energy weapons either. Ballistic weapons only. They should have no
reason to target you, then. Though that isn’t guaranteed.”
“And who do you think
they are again? Brotherhood? What’s that?”
“A bunch of assholes is
who they are. The Brotherhood of Steel. They take tech they think is
useful to them and they don’t usually bother making an exchange
other than their lasers in your dead corpse for whatever you have on
you.”
“So they are very
dangerous?”
“I guess it depends on
the Chapter, but yeah. Generally speaking, they are very dangerous.
My mom and dad used to talk about them a lot. From what they told me,
they’re a nasty bunch.”
“So you’ve never met
them yourself?”
Drew shook his head.
“Haven’t had the misfortune.”
Devon rubbed his eyes. “I
guess this means our deal is off?”
“For now, yeah.”
“And I guess my claim of
having the safest caravans in the region is also out the window.”
“Depends on how many
guards you hire,” Drew said.
“Not enough to replace
the robots. They are easy to maintain and cheap to run and I also
didn’t have to pay them a wage.” Devon sighed. “I’ll have to
think about all this.”
“I understand.”
“I think I’ll hire
Jarik to go search for the missing caravan. Don’t want to leave
them out there to rot, even if they are dead.”
“No,” Drew agreed.
“I think that’s
everything. Thank you for coming by.”
Drew stood up and shook his
hand. “Sorry, we couldn’t make the exchange.”
“Maybe some other time.”
As he left the office, a
sense of dread filled his heart. While Drew hadn’t had direct
contact with the Brotherhood, he had heard enough about them to know
he should be concerned, even worried. They would strip anything and
everything from the area that they deemed ‘dangerous’ leaving
nothing but scraps.
He had been slacking off
for far too long. He needed to get his finger out and bring the Robco
plant back online.
If he didn’t, then the
Brotherhood, if it was them, would have free reign to do as they
pleased in the region.
Drew would not allow that.
These people had built a life, one that was far better than in most
other regions. He would be damned if he would let anyone take that
away.
That was a promise.