“That should do it,” Drew
muttered as he attached the repaired thruster unit back onto the
Gutsy before putting the panels back on.
He was back at the Robco plant
in the room that lay behind the security door. He had just finished
repairing the engine jet on the first of many Gutsies, though it
hadn’t been an easy task. Between having to find the necessary
parts and the lack of sleep due to a nightmare regarding a particular
bus and a Deathclaw, it had been a long, long day.
Drew normally didn’t remember
dreams or nightmares, yet this one was still vivid in his mind. It
had been so intense that it gave him pause every time he thought
about it. For as long as he could remember, he had never had a dream
like it. Even when his mother, then later his father had died he
hadn’t had such intense dreams. Then again, maybe he had and
couldn’t remember.
In the dream in question, he
had been hiding in the bus under the seat as he had in reality.
Unlike reality, however, the Deathclaw had torn off the back of the
bus like paper and reached inside. Its arm had been unusually long
and its claws were longer, like swords jutting out ready to impale
him.
He had tried to run, but it was
no use. The bus seemed to stretch out almost like it was made of
elasticated rubber and no matter how far and fast he went, escape
only seemed further and further away.
The next thing he knew, the bus
was normal again. Only normality had been short-lived as it pitched
upwards with a jerk, the front window facing towards the sky.
With a scream, he had grabbed
onto the back of one of the many seats and looked down through the
hole that had once been the back of the bus. Instead of seeing the
ground as he expected, he saw nothing but the gaping maw of an
impossibly large Deathclaw. It was ready and waiting to swallow not
only him but the entire bus whole.
Then the bus went inside the
monstrous cavern with him unwillingly along for the ride. Its long
wet tongue had coiled around the bus like a serpent around its prey.
The frame then began to buckle and twist as the limb-like tongue had
squeezed tighter and tighter. Unable to withstand the crushing force,
the shell of the bus had then collapsed, crushing both the vehicle
and him along with it.
That was when he had awoken.
His heart had been racing and the sense of dread stayed with him
throughout the night, stopping him from getting any meaningful sleep.
It had been a few days since
the nightmare-inducing encounter with the creature that Jarik had
dubbed the ‘Greenclaw’, and thankfully he’d seen no sign of it
ever since. If he was lucky, then the thing had mutated into
infertility, though he knew he couldn’t take that chance. Not with
how massive the thing was. Not as gargantuan as it had been in the
dream, but absurdly big all the same.
Despite the danger posed by the
monster, he had returned to the Robco plant. Truth be told, he hadn’t
mentioned his ordeal to anyone including Jack or Amy, and he
especially hadn’t told them how close he had come to being
disemboweled. He knew they’d worry and try to talk him out of the
whole thing. He couldn’t afford for their concerns to delay him,
not for a single day. If anything, it made his work even more
important. The last thing the region needed was a huge green
Deathclaw wandering around freely. That would only lead to disaster,
especially if there were more of them. The best way to deal with the
creatures without unnecessary death was to let loose an army of
robots to destroy them.
After all, he could fix robots
far easier than any doctor could fix a person.
Drew gave the thruster jet a
visual once over before he reached inside the back panel. “Time to
see if your jets work,” he muttered as he activated the robot with
the flick of the switch.
As the Gutsy powered up, he
took a few steps back and rested his grubby hands on his hips. The
Gutsy’s thruster ignited and it rose into the air before it turned
all three eyes on him. Then, with a salute of a clawed pincer it
spoke.
“Waiting for orders, sir!
Let’s go kick some Commie ass!”
Drew
had set himself as its commander
which had
been
surprisingly easy to do. He
would have expected it to be more difficult but it had the same
backdoor as every
Handy
model
did. At some point, he planned on closing some of the security holes
in the software, but for now it wasn’t needed, especially since he
had disarmed it before switching it on. Even
so, he knew to be weary. Robots could be dangerous with or without
weapons, especially when the
robot in question
had a scalding hot thruster jet streaming out ionized plasma.
He
was just glad it wasn’t a conventional rocket that kept them in the
air. That would have scorched and burned everything around it.
Instead, and thankfully, the heat was primarily focused around the
exhaust.
A
moment later, the robot realized its lack of armaments. “Sir,
it appears I am missing my standard issue Commie
killers!”
“You’re undergoing
maintenance,” Drew told it. “You had a faulty thruster unit which
was installed during construction. We are currently running some
tests.”
“Understood,
sir. Do
you require me to shut down my thruster module?”
“No.
I want to see how it performs.”
“Understood, sir.”
After
giving the Gutsy various tasks to perform around the factory,
Drew was satisfied that his fix had worked as intended. Back
in the room, he
shut it down and began to work
on
the thruster of a second Gutsy. While the first thruster had taken
most
of the morning and testing
had taken a
good chunk out
of
the afternoon, the repair of the second thruster took a lot longer.
The
reason wasn’t due
to
its fault being
different, as all of them
had the same manufacturing fault, but it appeared as though it had
been damaged at some point post-manufacture.
Probably
when the
robot
was tossed into the back room and abandoned.
Finally,
with the
second
fixed and tested, he powered it down before checking the time.
“Shit.”
It
was half-nine at night, far too late to head home
which meant he was going to be spending the night. Considering he
planned on moving to the old factory anyway, it wasn’t too much of
an
inconvenience, apart from the lack of any
mattresses
or
beds.
While
he
had seen an old couch in the lobby area, that
didn’t mean it was
in good enough condition that he could use it.
If
it
wasn’t,
then he might not be getting much sleep.
After
cracking
open a beer he had found in the cafeteria earlier in the day, he sat
back on an
old plastic chair and stared at the array of Gutsies
in front of him. Once
he had them all fixed up and rearmed, they would make a formidable
defense. Out of all the robot types, they were by far the fastest and
most agile, though that came with the cost of having lighter weapons
and armor. He
could load them up with more weaponry and armor, but that would slow
them down and thus
make
them more vulnerable.
As
his father used to say: ‘It’s a catch twenty-two’; whatever
that meant.
Drew
almost dropped his bottle in
fright when
a
loud deep thump echoed from
outside of
the room.
He put the bottle down and reached for his laser rifle before
standing up, making his way out into the hallway.
He tightened his grip on his
weapon as he heard another deep thump. It sounded like it was coming
from the front doors, which were thankfully reinforced.
“Please
don’t be one of those fucking green
Deathclaws,”
he muttered to himself.
With
a third deep thud, he decided to lock up the room of Gutsies
and headed
upstairs. He knew there
was a room or
office that looked down on the entryway since
he had seen it on the crude
map plans
in
the foyer. He
believed
he
should
be able to get a good
look
at
the unwelcome visitor from there.
Lock-picking the door to the
manager’s office was fairly easy. Inside, he found a typical large
desk with a computer, a large window, and a door off to the side. He
made a mental note to check what was behind the other door later.
First, though, he wanted to see what was banging on the door.
In
the darkness, he slowly and carefully made his way around the desk
and peered out of the window. Down below he could see a green
Deathclaw
illuminated by an old light post. It
was no longer banging on the door and instead appeared to be studying
it from
several steps back, as
though it was looking for a weakness.
“I
hope the fucking thing isn’t intelligent,” he muttered as he
continued to watch it with
a strange
mix
of terror and fascination.
One thing he noticed was that
it didn’t seem to be as large as the one he’d seen on the
highway. While that was good news, it came with a caveat; it meant
there were definitely more of the things out there just like he had
expected.
Drew found himself pressing his
face up against the glass as he studied the monstrosity. Like the one
he’d seen earlier, it had large growths on its chest, though now
that he was able to get a better look at it, he realized that the
tumors looked unfortunately like breasts.
That was if they were
tumors. But what else could they be? The thing was a lizard and
lizards didn’t have tits.
“What the fuck am I even
looking at?”
He continued to stare at it for
what felt like an eternity before it turned around and began to walk
away. It appeared as though it had finally given up when it stopped
and spun back around, its gaze turning upwards towards the office
window.
“Shit!”
He
dove over the desk and hid from view, hoping the monster hadn’t
seen him. If
it had, then it would likely renew its attack on the door. That, or
it would throw something at the window. He’d seen Deathclaws
do that before and they had a
lot of power
behind those arms,
enough
to turn the window - reinforced
or not - into
shards of
glass.
“This
blows my plans to shit,” he hissed.
It had been his plan to
eventually bring Amy and Jack here, but at that moment in time, it
didn’t seem like such a good idea. Not until he’d activated and
armed every damned Gutsy in the factory. The Assaultron would
definitely come in handy as well. That was the only way he could see
making this place remotely safe. That, and setting up turrets. A
place like this was sure to have them already, though they were
clearly inactive. He’d have to find a way to reactivate them if
there were any or build some if there weren’t.
Drew clutched his chest in
fright as he heard something heavy hit the window. He peeked over the
desk only to find himself staring into the face of the monstrous
beast. Somehow, it had managed to climb up the wall and it was now
stood on the eave just below the window staring right back at him,
its clawed hands spread out and its breasts pressed up against the
glass
At any moment he felt that the
thing was going to burst through and murder him. Instead, it kept its
eyes locked on him as though it wasn’t sure what it should do next.
Instead of smashing through the
window, it thankfully let go and dropped. He heard a thud, followed
by the patter of heavy footfalls which got quieter and quieter.
Releasing his breath, he rose up and made his way slowly and
cautiously back over to the window. Much to his joy, he saw it
running off into the distance.
“Thank
fuck for that,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief.
That
relief was short-lived as a moment later the monster turned
invisible. The only sign it was there was a lensing effect
on the environment around it, and that in itself grew less prominent
the
further away it
got before
it disappeared completely
into the night.
“The
fucking things can not
only climb but turn
invisible,” he said out loud. “We
are all fucked!”
Feeling
weak, he sat down heavily on the old armchair behind the desk, which
creaked under his weight. If they could turn invisible, that meant
they could set up ambushes. Deathclaws were definitely smart enough
to do that. As to how smart these
green ones
actually were compared
to the regular breed he
had no idea.
All he knew was that they were clever and could easily
wipe
out entire settlements if
they wanted to.
“I
need to find where they’re nesting and wipe the fuckers out,” he
said as he placed his laser rifle down on the desk in front of him.
“For that, I’ll need an army.”
Drew
rubbed his eyes with the backs
of his hands. He knew that securing this place would have to take
precedent. There
were plenty of parts to
build turrets, but first, he would have to check to see whether
there
was
any
hidden away that
he could use.
No point in building something that already existed.
Given
enough time, he could turn this place into a fortress. It
already was one to
a degree.
Reinforced front doors, and
reinforced
shutters as
well as thick walls.
It was built to withstand being bombed, which meant that the
Greenclaws
would have a hard time getting in. Though the doors wouldn’t hold
up forever. He
needed
help and despite the danger, he knew
that he needed
Amy and Jack here
if
he was
going to make any of it
work.
Despite
knowing that he should probably get
some sleep, he decided that he couldn’t
afford to. At
least not tonight.
He needed to check the front door, and either find defense turrets
and activate them or start
building
some.
Drew’s
gaze fell onto the desktop computer. He cracked his knuckles before
he rolled the chair over. He switched it on and waited for it to boot
up. After hacking his way through the
password screen, he found himself staring at strings of corrupted
files.
With
a sigh, he stood up and headed out of the room. He would have to
check the
database
later when he had more time. First, he needed to
take
a look at the
front door to
see the damage.
Much
to his irritation and fear, he saw a light crack in the frame. A few
more
minutes of trying and the monster probably would have gotten through.
That
meant it was strong, very
strong.
Feeling more than a little
unsettled, he rushed to the security office and checked the terminal
there. Like the office computer upstairs, a lot was corrupted,
including the turret control system, which proved the place had some
at least. It would take some time to clean up the code, possibly all
night, but Drew knew it had to be done. Once that was dealt with,
he’d have to check to see if they worked. From what he saw they
were retractable and on the roof. They could rain fire on any aerial
or ground targets with impunity. If they hadn’t seized and he was
able to get them to pop out of their shielded hidey-holes, then he
would have solved most of his problems. If not, then it would be a
long arduous task of fixing that as well.
“Looks
like I’m pulling an all-nighter,” he said as he rolled
up his sleeves and
got
to work.
In
a strange way, he was actually
kinda looking
forward to it.
He
just hoped he didn’t get any more unwelcome visitations from any
angry
clawed
monsters.